Obama ethics chief blasts Biden for retaining classified docs: 'Inexcusable neglect of the most basic security protocols'

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Walter Shaub, ethics chief in the Obama administration, called out President Joe Biden on Tuesday for improperly retaining classified documents.

Biden, according to Shaub, demonstrated an "inexcusable neglect of the most basic security protocols." Still, Shaub downplayed the seriousness of Biden's actions by drawing a comparison to former President Donald Trump.

"It's nothing like Trump’s deliberate refusal to return classified records demanded by the National Archives," Shaub told Fox News, "but Biden’s own retention of classified records reflects an inexcusable neglect of the most basic security protocols."

Shaub, moreover, knocked the White House for not disclosing the second discovery of classified documents — those at Biden's private Wilmington, Delaware, residence — when it admitted to the first discovery at Biden's private office in Washington.

Biden's private attorneys allegedly discovered the first batch of documents on Nov. 2 and the second on Dec. 20. But when they disclosed the first last Monday, they neglected to mention the second.

"The fact that the White House didn't mention that records were found in more than one location when first asked about them was a breach of trust with the public and a self-inflicted wound," Shaub said.

Shaub added that he is "glad" that Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel — former U.S. attorney Robert Hur — to investigate Biden, but claimed it is "unlikely" that Biden is "at risk of any of legal consequences."

What crimes are on the table?

While the Justice Department has said nothing about criminal charges, the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents is a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

But Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman explained on Tuesday that Biden could be free and clear because the statute of limitations for unauthorized retention of classified documents is five years. It has been six years since Biden left office as vice president.

However, it's not clear when the documents found improperly in Biden's possession were retained, neither is it clear what the motive was for the retention and subsequent failure to return the documents.

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'What a disgusting comment': Former ethics chief, who was nominated by Obama, slams Pelosi for saying lawmakers should not be barred from trading individual stocks



House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) does not believe Congress members and their spouses should be prohibited from trading individual stocks, but former director of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub strongly disagrees.

It is a "free market economy," she said on Wednesday. "They should be able to participate in that."

WATCH: Pelosi holds her weekly news conference youtu.be

But Shaub, who was nominated by President Barack Obama to be OGE director and who served in the post from January 2013 until he resigned in July 2017, decried Pelosi's position on the issue.

"What a disgusting comment," Shaub told Fox News Digital via email. "This is the opposite of government ethics."

"Nobody kidnapped these members of Congress when they were private citizens, dragged them to Washington and forced them to be in Congress," he noted. "The American people are sick of members of Congress buying and selling stock and creating the appearance of trading on insider information."

"They should absolutely be banned from trading stocks," he said. "Let them buy diversified mutual funds. Let them buy government bonds. But bar them from trading stocks for crying out loud."

It's a ridiculous comment! She might as well have said "let them eat cake." Sure, it's a free-market economy. But your average schmuck doesn't get confidential briefings from government experts chock full of nonpublic information directly related to the price of stocks.https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1471152961577439234\u00a0\u2026
— Walter Shaub (@Walter Shaub) 1639593716

According to the Associated Press, Pelosi's latest financial disclosure indicates that her husband owns millions of dollars of Amazon, Apple, Comcast, and Visa stocks, and stock options in Google's parent company.

"The speaker does not own any stocks," Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill said, according to Business Insider. "As you can see from the required disclosures, with which the speaker fully cooperates, these transactions are marked 'SP' for spouse. The speaker has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions."

Progressive Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York believes that lawmakers should be barred from owning and trading individual stocks during their time in office.

"It is absolutely ludicrous that members of Congress can hold and trade individual stock while in office," she tweeted last week. "The access and influence we have should be exercised for the public interest, not our profit. It shouldn’t be legal for us to trade individual stock with the info we have."

It is absolutely ludicrous that members of Congress can hold and trade individual stock while in office. \n\nThe access and influence we have should be exercised for the public interest, not our profit. It shouldn\u2019t be legal for us to trade individual stock with the info we have.https://twitter.com/JStein_WaPo/status/1468324311656194051\u00a0\u2026
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1638928342

Obama's ethics chief eviscerates White House for reportedly devising art scheme to sell Hunter Biden paintings to secret buyers for as much as $500K



Art is a big business. Worldwide sales of art and antiques reached an estimated $64.1 billion in 2019, according to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. One of the more curious artists to begin selling their artwork is Hunter Biden. The son of President Joe Biden is selling his artwork for potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars presents a potential headache for the White House.

The Biden administration reportedly stepped in and helped broker a deal that would allow a purchaser of Hunter's artwork to remain anonymous, which has concerned many over the possibility of bribery and money being exchanged for influence. One of the critics who slammed this alleged secret selling situation is Walter Shaub, former President Barack Obama's onetime ethics chief.

Hunter's art dealer is Georges Berges, who "plans to host a private viewing for Biden in Los Angeles this fall, followed by an exhibition in New York," according to Artnet. "Prices range from $75,000 for works on paper to $500,000 for large-scale paintings."

Shaub told Fox News that Hunter's art deal is "the opposite of government ethics." In effect, the Biden administration got the "art dealer to promise not to give us the means to monitor whether the buyers are getting preferential access to government" by keeping buyers anonymous, according to Shaub.

"Nobody ever said secrecy was the best disinfectant, but that's what we have now. And White House officials getting involved in any way other than to request transparency amounts to effectively putting an official stamp of approval on the president's son trading on his father's public service," Shaub said. "Instead, the president should be begging his son not to go through with this sale, even if that means threatening to banish him from the family's Thanksgiving table this fall and publicly condemning his actions."

"The idea's that even Hunter won't know, but the WH has outsourced government ethics to a private art dealer," Shaub wrote on Twitter. "We're supposed to trust a merchant in an industry that's fertile ground for money laundering, as well as unknown buyers who could tell Hunter or WH officials? No thanks. Is this amateur hour for government ethics?"

The former Office of Government Ethics director emphasized, "The WH has put its stamp of approval on the president's son profiting off his father's public service again."

"Yeah yeah, I know some folks aren't going to like this thread because we're not supposed to criticize the president who's way better than the ethical disaster named Trump," Shaub explained. "But, you know what? With democracy on the ropes, ethics has never been more important. And this ain't it."

Richard Painter, who was a top ethics official in the George W. Bush administration, told the Washington Post, "The whole thing is a really bad idea."

"The initial reaction a lot of people are going to have is that he's capitalizing on being the son of a president and wants people to give him a lot of money," Painter said. "I mean, those are awfully high prices."

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) pointed out some potential issues with Hunter selling expensive art to unknown entities, "Some very tough ethical questions about whether the president's son, who is still investing in CCP-linked firms, should take $500,000 in payment (bribes) for his 'artwork.' Better consult the experts on this one!"

Some very tough ethical questions about whether the president's son, who is still investing in CCP-linked firms, sh… https://t.co/EbBOxYytgJ

— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) 1625757199.0

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said Hunter had done nothing wrong with his new business endeavor.

"The president has established the highest ethical standards of any administration in American history, and his family's commitment to rigorous processes like this is a prime example," Bates responded to the criticism.

A bipartisan Senate investigation released last July alleges that the art industry is "largely unregulated," and "uncovered a complex set of facts involving shell companies with hidden owners, intermediaries who mask purchasers and sellers, and lax money laundering safeguards in the U.S. art industry."

"There is a lack of transparency in private art sales," the 150-page congressional report states. "As such, Congress should add high-value art to the list of industries that must comply with BSA requirements. Given the intrinsic secrecy of the art industry, it is clear that change is needed in this multi-billion-dollar industry."

The report alleges that "certain Russian oligarchs appear to have used transactions involving high-value art to evade sanctions imposed on them by the United States on March 20, 2014, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea."

Last month, Shaub blasted President Biden for allowing children and relatives of powerful administration officials to be hired for key government positions.

"[T]his royally sucks. I'm disgusted," Shaub said in June. "A lot of us worked hard to tee him up to restore ethics to government and believed the promises. This is a real 'f*** you' to us—and government ethics."

Georges Berges describes Hunter Biden's jump into art:

Biden has been a lifelong artist that has devoted his artistic career to both the written word and the visual arts. A lawyer by trade who now devotes his life to the creative arts - he brings a myriad of experiences creating powerful and impactful pieces of art. Biden's paintings range from photographic mix-media to abstract works on canvas, yupo paper, wood and metal. He incorporates oil, acrylic, ink and the written word within his work to create a distinctively unique experience that have become signature Biden.

Artnet notes that some of Biden's artwork are "geometric abstractions, filled with patterns and somewhat hallucinogenic."

Hunter admitted in February 2020, "For years I wouldn't call myself an artist," but, "Now I feel comfortable saying it."

"I don't paint from emotion or feeling, which I think are both very ephemeral," Biden said. "For me, painting is much more about kind of trying to bring forth what is, I think, the universal truth."

When asked what President Joe Biden thinks of his art, Hunter responded, "My dad loves everything that I do, and so, I'll leave it at that."

Former top Obama ethics official unleashes on Biden: 'I'm the stupid moron who fell for his false promises'



Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration, tore into President Joe Biden Friday, charging the Democratic president lied when he promised to champion ethical standards inside the White House.

What is the background?

The Washington Post reported Friday that, despite Biden's promise to not hire his own children for jobs in his administration, children and relatives of powerful administration officials have been hired for key government positions.

The Post reported:

But that vow did not extend to his senior staff and their relatives. In the first few months of Biden's presidency, at least five children of his top aides have secured coveted jobs in the new administration. They include two sons and a daughter of the White House counselor, the daughter of a deputy White House chief of staff and the daughter of the director of presidential personnel.
...
Beyond children, other relatives of top Biden aides also have secured high-level administration jobs or nominations. They include the wife of White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and the sister of White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

The story was published days after the Post published another story about the administration's hiring practices. That story was titled, "Lobbyist brother of top Biden adviser poses challenge to president's ethics promises."

What did Shaub say?

Shaub unleashed on Biden in a profanity-laced Twitter rant, calling himself a "stupid moron" who believed Biden's promises that such activity would not happen under his watch.

"[T]his royally sucks. I'm disgusted. A lot of us worked hard to tee him up to restore ethics to government and believed the promises. This is a a real 'f*** you' to us—and government ethics," Shaub said. "Pathetic! The responses from people who spent 4 years complaining the other side was putting party over country are pathetic. They sound just like MAGAs. The jobs went to privileged kiddos with mommies & daddies who cozied up to POTUS. Nepotism is illegal."

"EVEN THE F-ING HEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL PERSONNEL, WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE KEEPING THEM HONEST, HAS A CHILD WHO'S A RECENT COLLEGE GRAD WORKING IN THE ADMINISTRATION. AND THE SPOUSE OF THE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. This is ridiculous. What a f***ing failure," Shaub continued.

"Do I sound bitter? HELL, YEAH, I'M BITTER! I'm the stupid moron who fell for his false promises," he added. "I wasn't naive enough to think he'd be a transformative president. He told us he'd be plain vanilla. But I thought there was momentum behind his ethics promises. Boy was I stupid."

Do I sound bitter? HELL, YEAH, I'M BITTER! I'm the stupid moron who fell for his false promises. I wasn't naive eno… https://t.co/nyrk35QMiD

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) 1624025306.0


Shaub later pointed out more specific ethical problems with the Biden administration.

"We've got a Raytheon board member leading DOD," he said, referring to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. "We've got private equity fund people in the WH and at State. You've got corporate execs and big firm lawyers who represent corporations throughout. And personnel is policy."

Despite ranting against Biden, Shaub claimed the current administration is "better than" former President Donald Trump's, but concluded, "I'm disappointed. I'm angry. I supported this guy. I provided help to the campaign and the transition because I believed ethics was going to be a priority. Well, it isn't even in the top 100 things the administration cares about."

What did the WH say?

The White House rebuffed any accusations of unethical hirings.

"The president has instituted the highest ethical standards of anyone to ever hold this office," deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates told the Post. "And he's proud to have staffed the most diverse administration in American history with well-qualified public servants who reflect his values."