Allies of Hunter Biden have held initial discussions about starting a legal defense fund to help the first son as Republicans step up congressional probes into his business dealings and the federal probe into his taxes continues, according to a report Tuesday.
A collection of lawyers has represented Hunter, 52, in recent years and new ones are being added as his team pursues fresh legal strategies — but the Biden shot has struggled to pay them all due to dwindling financial resources, the Washington Post reports.
It is unclear exactly how much the first son owes in legal fees, because some of the work is ash Pro bono.
But others close to the situation say Hunter’s debt could reach millions of dollars — and the amount is expected to rise as the House GOP launches their investigations.
President Biden’s son has no steady source of income, the report said, and the once-lucrative payouts from his foreign business dealings have dried up under constant public scrutiny.
The Post exposed Hunter Biden’s shady ties to Ukraine and China in a series of reports in October 2020.
While the first son is currently trying out a career as an artist — one painting reportedly sold for $500,000 — other pieces of his artwork haven’t fetched nearly as much, the report said.
At the same time, some potential buyers have reneged on their purchases because of the congressional investigations and other possible backlash.
Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter last week to the SoHo gallery owner who exhibited Hunter Biden’s paintings seeking information about who bought the art as part of his investigation into alleged influence peddling.
The gallery owner, Georges Berges, told The Post that the request for sales information had to go through his lawyers, but took the time to talk about Hunter Biden’s artwork.
“His is a story of perseverance; Hunter’s story reflects what I believe is the beauty of humanity, not judged by the fall, but by having the strength to rise, by having the character necessary to change and having the courage to do so to do,” Berges told The Post. recovering crack addict.
Other prominent figures, including former President Bill Clinton and longtime political operative Roger Stone, have created legal defense funds while facing mounting bills in the face of investigations.
But the disclosure process governing the funds is often vague, raising ethical questions about who is donating and whether they are trying to influence the White House.
The Washington Post report also noted that there are few rules governing legal defense funds for private citizens.
While the Office of Government Ethics, the agency that monitors conflicts of interest in the executive branch, has begun to come up with rules for executive branch officials, that process is ongoing.
Still, the office is not considering rules for the children of elected officials, despite concerns about donors trying to buy influence.
“The Federal Election Commission does not consider legal defense funds to be part of the campaign finance system,” Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, told the outlet.
The discussions surrounding Hunter Biden’s defense fund are in the early stages, and questions about who would manage the fund and issues of confidentiality have not been decided.
In the case of Clinton’s defense fund, which was established in his second term amid the Paul Jones sexual harassment lawsuit, the Whitewater investigation and impeachment proceedings, donations are limited to $10,000 a year and the names of the donors are known made.
Donations from lobbyists, government officials and non-citizens are prohibited.
The American Conservative Union has created a First Amendment Fund, a tax-deductible nonprofit organization, to assist former Trump administration officials caught up in a House committee’s investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Stone, whom the committee interviewed, also created a legal defense fund, the report said, although the donations were not tax deductible and are considered gifts to Roger Stone.
Those close to Hunter Biden have criticized the Republican investigations as political posturing intended to damage the president and argue that the probes into the first son are unsolicited because he is a private citizen.
But Comer (R-Ky.) said the investigation into Hunter Biden is part of a broader investigation into influence peddling by the Biden family.
“We have evidence that … we will continue to be transparent as we begin our hearings next week, where this family is taking millions of dollars from our adversaries,” Comer said Monday at the National Press Club. “And I think we need to determine what that money was for [and] who provided that money?”
