{"id":587416,"date":"2021-07-09T16:51:02","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T20:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=587416"},"modified":"2021-07-09T16:51:06","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T20:51:06","slug":"obama-ethics-chief-warns-on-hunter-biden-art-secrecy-perfect-mechanism-for-funneling-bribes-to-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/obama-ethics-chief-warns-on-hunter-biden-art-secrecy-perfect-mechanism-for-funneling-bribes-to-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Ethics Chief Warns On Hunter Biden Art Secrecy: \u2018Perfect Mechanism For Funneling Bribes\u2019 To President"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fobama-ethics-chief-warns-on-hunter-biden-art-secrecy-perfect-mechanism-for-funneling-bribes-to-president%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=587416&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/JBAF1.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Walter Shaub, the former director of Obama\u2019s Office of Government Ethics, warned during a CNN interview on Friday that the process surrounding how Hunter Biden\u2019s artwork will be sold creates the \u201cperfect mechanism\u201d for bribing the president.<\/p>\n<p>Shaub\u2019s comments come after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that keeping the identities of those who purchase Hunter Biden\u2019s artwork a secret provides \u201cquite a level of protection and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, they have outsourced Government Ethics to an art dealer. She mentioned industry standards. It\u2019s an industry that\u2019s notorious for money laundering,\u201d Shaub said. \u201cThere\u2019s no standards in that industry, and the idea that they\u2019re going to flag any overly priced offers, well this is art that hasn\u2019t even been juried into a community art sale. How is, how are they going to decide what\u2019s unreasonable when they\u2019ve already priced it in the range of $75,000 to $500,000 for a first outing? This is just preposterous and very disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shaub noted that there is nothing that can be done to monitor the situation to \u201cmake sure that Hunter Biden or anyone in the White House doesn\u2019t find out, that the dealer keeps his or her promise that the buyers don\u2019t call the White House, ask for a meeting and say, \u2018Hey, I just bought the President\u2019s son\u2019s art for $500,000.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shaub said that the situation is \u201ca perfect mechanism for funneling bribes to\u201d the president.<\/p>\n<p>WATCH:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"10.739130434783\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Obama&#8217;s former ethics chief, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/waltshaub?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@waltshaub<\/a>, on WH&#8217;s deal to help Hunter sell art: It&#8217;s a &#8220;perfect mechanism for funneling bribes to [the] president&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s an industry that\u2019s notorious for money laundering.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RnOz0rJbfw\">pic.twitter.com\/RnOz0rJbfw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomselliott\/status\/1413588992247930888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 9, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>TRANSCRIPT:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"70\">\n<p><em>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\u2019s unusual behavior, like the offer being too high, the collector doesn\u2019t appear to be interested, the gallery is expected to turn down the offer. You don\u2019t think that\u2019s enough? Why?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>WALTER SHAUB, FORMER OBAMA ETHICS OFFICIAL: No, I mean, they have outsourced Government Ethics to an art dealer. She mentioned industry standards. It\u2019s an industry that\u2019s notorious for money laundering. There\u2019s no standards in that industry, and the idea that they\u2019re going to flag any overly priced offers, well this is art that hasn\u2019t even been juried into a community art sale. How is, how are they going to decide what\u2019s unreasonable when they\u2019ve already priced it in the range of $75,000 to $500,000 for a first outing? This is just preposterous and very disappointing.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>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\u2019re shaking your head.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>SHAUB: Yeah, they\u2019ve absolutely made it worse for two reasons. One, what they\u2019ve 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\u2019s nothing that we can do to monitor to make sure that Hunter Biden or anyone in the White House doesn\u2019t find out, that the dealer keeps his or her promise that the buyers don\u2019t call the White House, ask for a meeting and say, \u2018Hey, I just bought the President\u2019s son\u2019s art for $500,000.\u2019 Now maybe we trust Joe Biden not to give preferential treatment because he\u2019s a better human being than Donald Trump. But you don\u2019t run an ethics program on the idea that you hope everybody behaves. If everybody in the world would behave, we don\u2019t even need laws prohibiting murder then.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>BLACKWELL: So Walter, let\u2019s look at it from this perspective. An art is subjective, right? The appreciation of these pieces, but they\u2019re 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?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>SHAUB: Well, the thing is, it\u2019s just got the absolute appearance that he\u2019s profiting off of his father\u2019s fame. He\u2019s not selling under a pseudonym. He\u2019s not waiting till his father is out of office. And he\u2019s 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\u2019ve 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.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><i><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i><span>member<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walter Shaub, the former director of Obama\u2019s Office of Government Ethics, warned during a CNN interview on Friday that the process surrounding how Hunter Biden\u2019s artwork will be sold creates &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2314384,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/JBAF1.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Obama Ethics Chief Warns On Hunter Biden Art Secrecy: \u2018Perfect Mechanism For Funneling Bribes\u2019 To President","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-587416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/JBAF1.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Obama Ethics Chief Warns On Hunter Biden Art Secrecy: \u2018Perfect Mechanism For Funneling Bribes\u2019 To President","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2314384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}