President Joe Biden’s son knew the identities of some of the people who bought his artwork, his art dealer testified this week, contradicting claims from the White House.
Hunter Biden, 53, was aware of the identities of more than half of the purchasers of his art pieces, according to what Georges Bergès, his art dealer, reportedly told the House Oversight Committee in closed-door testimony.
Summarizing responses from Mr. Bergès, the panel said that the identities known to Mr. Biden included Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali and Kevin Morris, both of whom have previously donated to Democrat causes.
The revelation suggests that the arrangement the White House claimed to have made with Mr. Bergès, which was intended to shield Mr. Biden and government officials from knowing the buyers’ identities, either didn’t work or wasn’t implemented.
“The president has established the highest ethical standards of any administration in American history, and his family’s commitment to rigorous processes like this is a prime example,” Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said at the time.
But, according to Mr. Bergès, the arrangement was never crafted. He told members that the White House never reached out to him about it, according to the House panel.
“The Biden White House appears to have deceived the American people about facilitating an ethics agreement governing the sale of Hunter Biden’s art,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the committee, said in a statement. “Hunter Biden’s gallerist never had any communication with the White House about such an agreement to make sure there was any sort of ethics compliance at all, and he provided information to the committee revealing how Hunter Biden’s amateur art career is an ethics nightmare.”
Buyers Confirmed
Mr. Bergès confirmed the names of people who bought Mr. Biden’s pieces. Some of the names had been reported by the media but were never confirmed.Mr. Morris, a lawyer who has loaned Mr. Biden money in the past, bought most of the art in January 2023 for $875,000, Mr. Bergès was said to have told lawmakers in the private session.
He reportedly paid Mr. Bergès a commission of 40 percent and said that he and Mr. Biden would figure out the rest of the finances themselves, which was unprecedented in Mr. Bergès’s experience.
Ms. Naftali declined to buy Mr. Biden’s art in 2020 but bought a piece in 2021 shortly after his father became president, according to the testimony. She paid $42,000.
Ms. Naftali bought more pieces in December 2022 for $52,000.
President Biden appointed Ms. Naftali, who served on President Biden’s campaign, to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad in mid-2022.
Mr. Morris couldn’t be reached. Ms. Naftali hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
“The vast majority of Hunter Biden’s art has been purchased by Democrat donors, one of whom was appointed by President Biden to a prestigious commission after she purchased Hunter Biden’s art for tens of thousands of dollars shortly after Joe Biden’s inauguration,” Mr. Comer said. “The White House has a lot of explaining to do about misleading the American people.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the committee’s ranking Democrat, said that Mr. Bergès testified that he didn’t have any evidence that President Biden did anything wrong and that the president “had no knowledge of, or role in, these art sales.”
Investigation
The testimony emerged during a Republican-led investigation into Mr. Biden’s financial transactions and potential connections between him and his father.“Given the evidence the committees have uncovered about how Hunter Biden and other Biden family members have attempted to conceal the source of the money they received from abroad, it is particularly critical for the committees to understand the details regarding the sale of Hunter Biden’s artwork by your client’s gallery,” Mr. Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told the art dealer’s lawyer in a letter.
A subpoena for Ms. Naftali also was issued.
The probe has developed into an impeachment inquiry, approved in a House vote before the end of 2023. Republicans haven’t yet said how long the inquiry will last.
Mr. Biden also was subpoenaed but refused to testify in private. The committees approved a resolution on Jan. 10 to hold Mr. Biden in contempt of Congress, sending it to the floor for a full House vote.
