The person who paid as much as six figures for “artwork” by an untrained painter also received a prestigious government appointment from the artist’s father, President Joe Biden.
Now congressional investigators want to know if Biden’s decision to name Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali to the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad was in any way related to her purchase of artwork by Hunter Biden, a middle-aged man who paints as a hobby.
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY) is now asking Naftali and White House Counsel Stuart Delery to answer questions as to whether the Biden family is using Hunter’s “art” as a means of selling White House access.
The White House has previously claimed the identity of Hunter Biden art purchasers would be concealed to prevent any undue influence, but nothing prevents the purchaser from identifying themselves to Joe Biden when seeking an appointment, and now at least one purchaser has been identified as someone who sought White House access.
Naftali was appointed by Biden to the Commission in June 2022. The New York Post reports she previously paid an unknown sum to Hunter.
“The White House has stated that ‘Hunter Biden would be walled off from knowing the identities of his buyers in an attempt to separate his business dealings from his father’s administration.’ Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, told reporters that the gallery ‘does not disclose the names of any purchasers to Mr. Biden,’” said Comer.
“This system, however, seems to have failed, because Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali’s identity as a purchaser of this art has become public. Her position on the Commission is particularly suspicious because of Hunter Biden’s previous actions to elevate his business partner—Eric Schwerin—to the same post while his father was Vice President. White House visitor logs revealed that Ms. Hirsh Naftali visited the White House at least 13 times since December 2021,” said Comer.
“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating President Joe Biden and his family’s foreign and domestic influence peddling schemes, including the sale of the President’s son’s high-priced artwork. Hunter Biden’s art dealer, George Bergès, has repeatedly failed to respond to the Committee’s requests for transcribed interviews and information related to the high-dollar art transactions on Hunter Biden’s art,” the Committee writes in a statement
“The Committee has released two memoranda that show through subpoenaed bank records how Biden family members and their associates have brought in millions of dollars—including while Joe Biden served as Vice President—from foreign sources by using third parties to conceal the source and nature of the funds. The Committee is concerned Hunter Biden has used his new career as an artist to peddle influence in and access to the White House,” Comer added.
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