The White House Thinks Less Transparency Can Fix an Ethics Problem

Under the quippy headline, "Deal of the art: White House grapples with ethics of Hunter Biden's pricey paintings," the Post reported on July 8 that Hunter will be free to sell his artwork through a New York City art dealer, so long as he, Hunter, never learns the identity of the purchaser, and so long as the dealer rejects purchasers deemed to be "Suspicious."

Lest anyone think that the Post report of the unusual secrecy surrounding the First Son's art sales was somehow fake news, White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended it the following day, declaring that Hunter Biden "Has the right to pursue an artistic career." And she added, "I can tell you that after careful consideration, a system has been established that allows for Hunter Biden to work in his profession within reasonable safeguards,".

White House officials have helped craft an agreement under which purchases of Hunter Biden's artwork-which could be listed at prices as high as $500,000-will be kept confidential from even the artist himself, in an attempt to avoid ethical issues that could arise as a presidential family member tries to sell a product with a highly subjective value.

Given this tight family bonding, perhaps we can spare some sympathy for the Biden White House lawyers, who have been called upon to cobble together something that's un-cobble-able-a plan for insulating Joe's Oval Office from Hunter's new moneymaking plan.

Here's a CNN headline in February: "Frank Biden's actions already testing Joe Biden's ethics claims."

Given these realities-no money secrets from Hunter and no apparent family distance between Hunter and Joe-it's easy to see that the White House plan for Hunter's art is not going to work as advertised.

The Biden White House is pursuing the exact opposite approach.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/07/10/pinkerton-the-glaring-loopholes-in-hunter-bidens-art-deal-the-white-house-thinks-less-transparency-can-fix-an-ethics-problem/