The White House helped broker the deal that would allow buyers of Hunter Biden's paintings to remain confidential, despite widespread concerns it could lead to bribery and influence peddling, it was revealed on Thursday.
The plan will allow Hunter Biden to forge ahead with his new career as an artist after a career change from a high-paid consultant on international deals, by also shielding him from the identities of those who purchase his pricey works.
The deal came about after Biden administration staffers reached out to Hunter's lawyers to forge a plan intended to 'avoid' ethics concerns and let the president's son pursue his new career.
But there are still questions over how the administration and his lawyers will stop individual buyers from reaching out to Hunter or someone revealing how much one of his paintings has been purchased for.
The idea is avoid a situation where he knew who was buying his work so he might be in the position to do them a favor – although it still provides an opportunity for unidentified individuals to shovel large sums to the president's son as he battles high living costs and legal fees.
'The whole thing is a really bad idea,' ethics expert Richard Painter told the Washington Post, which revealed new details of the arrangement.
'So instead of disclosing who is paying outrageous sums for Hunter Biden’s artwork so that we could monitor whether the purchasers are gaining access to government, the WH tried to make sure we will never know who they are. That’s very disappointing,' tweeted ethics expert Walter Shaub.
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