Fmr Gov’t Ethics Chief Says Biden Admin Sending ‘Terrible Signal’ With ‘Stamp of Approval’ on Hunter ‘Profiting Off of His Father’s Job’

Walter Shaub, who served as director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, said on CNN Monday that the Biden administration is sending a “terrible signal” around the world with Hunter Biden’s art dealings.

Shaub served in the Obama administration and left a few months into the Trump administration. He’s been repeatedly critical of serious ethics issues in the Trump White House, but a recent report about the Biden administration crafting an agreement for the president’s son to sell his art set him off.

The agreement reportedly says that the identity of buyers will be kept confidential “from even the artist,” but Shaub argued that this just means they’re “outsourc[ing] government ethics to an art dealer.”

On Monday, Shaub spoke with CNN’s Jake Tapper and said, “There’s no way to look at this and believe for a second that Hunter Biden is not trying to profit off of his father’s public service by selling art at these extraordinary prices when he hasn’t even juried into a community art fair before.”

“And the White House intervening to ensure the secrecy of these sales is both naive and disingenuous,” he continued, pointing out that “there’s no way this information is going to stay secret.”

Shaub expressed dismay that there is a “White House stamp of approval” on “this profiting off of the father’s job.”

Tapper asked if the solution to this would be complete transparency where everything is out in the open.

“Ideally we wouldn’t even be in this situation,” Shaub responded.

Hunter Biden can do any job he wants. But he ought to do it in a way where he’s not clearly profiting off of his father’s job. If they can’t talk him into voluntarily not going through with this art sale, then there is something that’s completely within their control to do, which is to commit that if they ever learn the name of any of these buyers they will immediately notify the public and share that information, and commit that if that buyer ever has a phone call, email exchange, or meeting with an administration appointee, they will also disclose that to the public.

He said that while he personally believes President Joe Biden to be a man of good character who won’t “let himself be bribed,” this can’t come down to “just trusting his good character.”

“And you think this is a bad signal for the world?” Tapper asked.

“I think it’s a terrible signal for the world,” Shaub responded. “After what we’ve just gone through in four years of disastrous ethical failure, now the world is looking to see if America is truly ready to step forward into much stronger ethics, and what do they see on the news? They see the president’s son cashing in selling art at these ridiculous prices, and the White House actively defending it. That is very damaging to our reputation.”

You can watch above, via CNN.