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Walter Shaub, the former ethics chief of former President Barack Obama, criticizes an arrangement with the White House that would allow President Hunter Biden’s son to sell his expensive works of art to anonymous buyers without disclosure at the public – a deal that Shaub ridiculed as a “perfect mechanism for channeling bribes.”
Shaub first responded to the White House announcement of the deal on Thursday, writing in a lengthy Twitter thread that the Biden administration was trying to “make sure we never know” who the buyers are.
“So instead of revealing who is paying exorbitant sums for Hunter Biden’s artwork so that we can verify if buyers have access to the government, the WH has tried to make sure we never know who they are. Shaub wrote on logging into Washington. Position report. “It is very disappointing.”
Shaub doubled down on Friday, saying young Biden’s new artistic career “just got the absolute appearance that he’s enjoying his father’s fame.”
“He doesn’t sell under a pseudonym. He doesn’t wait for his father to be removed from office. He doesn’t sell at any price comparable to what other artists are selling for the first time,” Shaub said in a recent post. interview.
Empty white brick wall with edison lights: istock Image art: bergesgallery.com
(istock / Galerie des Berges)
He said the White House, as a first step, should have asked President Joe Biden to try to dissuade his son from doing so or, at a minimum, to make the names of the buyers public so that “whenever the one of these buyers a meeting with a government official… the public could judge whether or not he received preferential treatment.
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“The problem is, now they’ve set a precedent for the next president,” Shaub said. “Even if you trust Joe Biden, what if the next president had the character of Donald Trump? That would be a perfect mechanism to channel bribes to that president.”
In a statement to Fox News, Shaub qualified his comments, saying he did not personally think Biden would take a bribe, but noted that a government ethics program cannot be built around a “subjective belief in the character of an individual”.
Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, attends a briefing on President Trump’s refusal to divest his businesses and the administration’s delay in disclosing ethics waivers for appointees, on Capitol Hill on November 1, 2017 in Washington, DC.
(Getty Images)
“The way to build public trust is to have consistent standards that you apply whoever is in charge and to recognize that whatever a leader does sets a precedent for a future administration,” Shaub said. “Whether or not White House officials think secret payments to the president’s son could lead buyers to preferential treatment in this administration, they can’t guarantee future presidents who haven’t even taken it yet. their functions. And you can be sure that future presidents will invoke this arrangement to justify their own conduct. ”
Fox News contacted the White House for comment, but did not receive a response until the publication. The White House defended its deal to license Hunter Biden’s artwork on Friday.
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“After careful consideration, a system has been put in place which allows Hunter Biden to practice his profession under reasonable conditions,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday. “Of course, he has the right to pursue an artistic career, just as any child of a president has the right to pursue a career.”
Fox News’s Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.
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