House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) sent two letters Saturday demanding documents from the White House General Counsel and a highly connected appointee of President Joe Biden, who purchased a piece of Hunter Biden’s artwork.
Last week, Business Insider reported that Elizabeth Hirsch Naftali, a Los Angeles-based real estate investor and appointee of President Joe Biden, had purchased one of Hunter Biden’s art pieces. Naftali was appointed to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad in July 2022, which was after Hunter Biden’s first art show in Hollywood.
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Naftali purchased the piece for as much as $500,000 from the Georges Bergés Gallery, according to Insider.
Now Comer is demanding documents and correspondence from both her and Stuart Delery, the White House general counsel, according to two letters obtained by the Washington Examiner.
From Delery, the committee is seeking any documents and communication between the White House, Naftali, and Bergés — Hunter Biden’s gallerist.
The White House has stated in the past that there are safeguards in place to prevent any ethical breaches, including shielding information about the prices of paintings and who the buyer was.
“This system, however, seems to have failed because Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali’s identity as a purchaser of this art has become public,” Comer said in the letter to Delery.
Comer continues by saying this purchase and Naftali’s position on the commission are even more “suspicious” because when his father was vice president, one of Hunter Biden’s business associates, Eric Schwerin, was appointed to the same commission.
They are asking Delery to provide:
- All documents and communications between or among the White House, Georges Bergés, the Georges Bergés Gallery, and Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali;
- All documents and communications from any federal employee regarding the purchase of Hunter Biden’s art;
- All documents and communications from any federal employee regarding Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali’s appointment to the Commission; and
- All documents and communications regarding Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali’s visits to the White House since December 2021.
Comer sent a similar letter to Naftali herself. He is requesting “documents and information regarding your purchase of Hunter Biden art” and also any documents and communications surrounding her White House visits since December 2021.
“Reports have identified you as the purchaser of at least one of these pieces, which have been priced as high as $500,000,” Comer’s letter to Naftali reads. “These facts raise the Committee’s concerns, and the Committee seeks documents and information regarding your purchase of Hunter Biden art.”
Both Naftali and Delery have until Aug. 11 to produce the requested information for the committee.
This comes amid intense scrutiny of the Biden family’s finances and business dealings and if those have influenced President Biden’s actions. The committee has been investigating whether or not Joe Biden had any involvement in his son’s business dealings and if he received any money or not.
Comer has unveiled a number of bank accounts and “shell companies” not directly associated with any of the Bidens but where business associates of Hunter Biden would route money through, and, eventually, that money would end up in a bank account directly tied to a Biden family member.
For example, back in March, Comer released a memo claiming that State Energy HK Limited, a Chinese company, wired $3 million to Robinson Walker LLC, an account that belonged to Hunter Biden’s business associate Rob Walker. From there, “Biden family members and their companies began receiving incremental payments over a period of approximately three months” from Robinson Walker LLC, Comer said.
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The news about the artwork sale comes during an investigation into allegations that then Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden were involved in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme with the head of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company where Hunter Biden was a board member.
According to an FBI-generated FD-1023 tip sheet released earlier this month, Mykola Zlochevsky, the head of Burisma, told a paid FBI informant that he had paid each Biden $5 million to pressure the Ukrainian government to fire Viktor Shokin, a prosecutor allegedly investigating Burisma. The allegations are unverified.
