Fmr Gov’t Ethics Chief Calls Out Jen Psaki’s Defense of Hunter Biden Art Agreement: ‘The Arrogance of This View…’
Former U.S. Office of Government Ethics director Walter Shaub called out White House press secretary Jen Psaki for deflecting on a question about Hunter Biden’s art on Friday.
Psaki was questioned Friday about recent reporting on the president’s son meeting with potential art buyers, given the agreement the White House helped craft around sales of his work. As the Washington Post first reported weeks ago, the agreement meant purchases “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.”
One reporter asked Psaki about Hunter Biden meeting with prospective buyers, and she responded, “Not that he’s meeting with prospective buyers, that he is attending gallery events.”
.@PressSec Jen Psaki: “[Hunter Biden] will not know, we will not know who purchases his art.” pic.twitter.com/eYYyhZu3nB
— The Hill (@thehill) July 23, 2021
When asked if there’s anything stopping a buyer from telling Hunter directly they’re going to buy the art, Psaki said, “He will not know, we will not know who purchases his art.”
Shaub, who served as government ethics chief under Barack Obama and the first few months of Donald Trump’s administration, has been very critical of the Biden administration on this, and he tweeted about that exchange Friday, saying, “She deflects, saying Hunter won’t know who the buyers are, then jumps to another reporter. They have no answer.”
“This is what happens when members of a team convince themselves they’re the ‘good guys,'” Shaub said. “They believe there’s no danger of enhanced access because they’re the ‘good guys.’ But the arrogance of this view lies in the belief that the public has no right to monitor if access is sold.”
He argued that ethics agreements cannot “rely on goodness alone” and trust that they will handle things properly, and at the least what they should do is “promise the public that (a) they will notify us if they happen to learn a buyer’s identity (because they will learn) and (b) notify us again if a buyer communicates with an administration official.”
The secrecy agreement was designed to keep one group of people from knowing who buys Hunter Biden’s art: The public.
There’s no mechanism for monitoring, no mechanism for notifying the public if confidentiality is broken, no mechanism for tracking if buyers get access to govt.
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) July 23, 2021
You may trust them. Maybe I trust access won’t be sold. But half the voters in this country don’t, and it’s their right to demand that the government be transparent about whether people are buying access. The shoe was, and will be again, on the other foot.
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) July 23, 2021
If they can’t talk Hunter Biden out of this sale or into transparency, they can promise the public that (a) they will notify us if they happen to learn a buyer’s identity (because they will learn) and (b) notify us again if a buyer communicates with an administration official.
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) July 23, 2021
