Walter Shaub, the former director of Obama’s Office of Government Ethics, warned during a CNN interview on Friday that the process surrounding how Hunter Biden’s artwork will be sold creates the “perfect mechanism” for bribing the president.
Shaub’s comments come after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that keeping the identities of those who purchase Hunter Biden’s artwork a secret provides “quite a level of protection and transparency.”
“I mean, they have outsourced Government Ethics to an art dealer. She mentioned industry standards. It’s an industry that’s notorious for money laundering,” Shaub said. “There’s no standards in that industry, and the idea that they’re going to flag any overly priced offers, well this is art that hasn’t even been juried into a community art sale. How is, how are they going to decide what’s unreasonable when they’ve already priced it in the range of $75,000 to $500,000 for a first outing? This is just preposterous and very disappointing.”
Shaub noted that there is nothing that can be done to monitor the situation to “make sure that Hunter Biden or anyone in the White House doesn’t find out, that the dealer keeps his or her promise that the buyers don’t call the White House, ask for a meeting and say, ‘Hey, I just bought the President’s son’s art for $500,000.'”
Shaub said that the situation is “a perfect mechanism for funneling bribes to” the president.
WATCH:
Obama's former ethics chief, @waltshaub, on WH's deal to help Hunter sell art: It's a "perfect mechanism for funneling bribes to [the] president"
"It’s an industry that’s notorious for money laundering." pic.twitter.com/RnOz0rJbfw
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 9, 2021
TRANSCRIPT:
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Shaub is the former head of the Office of Government Ethics under President Obama. Walter, thanks for being with us. So, some of those safeguards put in place are neither Hunter Biden nor the public will know who bid on or purchased the work. And if there’s unusual behavior, like the offer being too high, the collector doesn’t appear to be interested, the gallery is expected to turn down the offer. You don’t think that’s enough? Why?
WALTER SHAUB, FORMER OBAMA ETHICS OFFICIAL: No, I mean, they have outsourced Government Ethics to an art dealer. She mentioned industry standards. It’s an industry that’s notorious for money laundering. There’s no standards in that industry, and the idea that they’re going to flag any overly priced offers, well this is art that hasn’t even been juried into a community art sale. How is, how are they going to decide what’s unreasonable when they’ve already priced it in the range of $75,000 to $500,000 for a first outing? This is just preposterous and very disappointing.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And Walter, just explain, why would the White House be the intermediary for the art sale? I mean, I think that what Jen Psaki was saying was that they thought that this would be a way to head off any ethical concerns, but you’re shaking your head.
SHAUB: Yeah, they’ve absolutely made it worse for two reasons. One, what they’ve done is ensured that neither you nor I, or anyone watching this show will know who buys the art unless they share it publicly. But there’s nothing that we can do to monitor to make sure that Hunter Biden or anyone in the White House doesn’t find out, that the dealer keeps his or her promise that the buyers don’t call the White House, ask for a meeting and say, ‘Hey, I just bought the President’s son’s art for $500,000.’ Now maybe we trust Joe Biden not to give preferential treatment because he’s a better human being than Donald Trump. But you don’t run an ethics program on the idea that you hope everybody behaves. If everybody in the world would behave, we don’t even need laws prohibiting murder then.
BLACKWELL: So Walter, let’s look at it from this perspective. An art is subjective, right? The appreciation of these pieces, but they’re not bad, right? If you look at them, these are things that some collectors might like. Is there a way that Hunter Biden could now become this great emerging artist and sell them for a price that matches the market that would not run afoul of ethics concerns?
SHAUB: Well, the thing is, it’s just got the absolute appearance that he’s profiting off of his father’s fame. He’s not selling under a pseudonym. He’s not waiting till his father is out of office. And he’s not selling at any price comparable to what other first time artists are selling. So the White House should have first made its move to have the president trying to talk him out of doing this. And if that failed, they should have gone the opposite direction and asked that the name of buyers be released and pledged to the American people that what they would do is let us know anytime one of those buyers got a meeting with an administration official so that the public could judge whether or not they were getting preferential treatment. The problem is now they’ve set a precedent for the next president and even if you happen to trust Joe Biden, what if the next president has the character of a Donald Trump, this would be a perfect mechanism for funneling bribes to that President.