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President Joe Biden’s son Hunter is costing taxpayers at least $30,000 per month for his security, a new report suggested on Monday
The United States Secret Service is footing the bill for a mansion in Malibu, California costing more than $30,000 per month to protect Hunter Biden, a new report revealed on Monday.
President Joe Biden‘s only surviving son, along with his wife and child, live next door to the ‘Spanish-style estate’ that boasts ‘gorgeous ocean views’ according to its listing, sources told ABC News.
The property reportedly includes six bedrooms and six bathrooms, along with swanky amenities like a gym, tasting room, pool, barbecue and a spa.
A spiral staircase in the taxpayer cash-rented mansion leads to a ‘castle-like tower to the master retreat with wet bar.’ Its listing, according to ABC, sells the home as ‘resort-style living at its finest’ and a ‘perfect retreat for discerning clientele.’
Hunter’s own home is more modest at $20,000 per month in rent, property listings reportedly suggest.
The president’s son is apparently living in luxury in a ‘resort-style’ four-bedroom, three-bathroom home that features high ceilings and a chef’s kitchen, Monday’s report claims. It’s also said to have a ‘park-like’ back yard and shares similar amenities to his security detail’s next-door mansion like a pool, spa and barbecue.
When reached for comment, the Secret Service told DailyMail.com: ‘Due to the need to maintain operational security, the U.S. Secret Service does not comment on the means, methods or resources to conduct our protective operations.’
While it’s common practice for the Secret Service — who protects the president, their family and other high-ranking officials — to rent the nearest possible location to the protectee, the elitist lifestyle chosen by some in the upper echelons of power has come under scrutiny as a deliberate waste of taxpayer dollars.
Monday’s report comes amid increased scrutiny over the president’s son’s foreign business dealings — particularly in China and Ukraine — at a time when Joe Biden was vice president.
‘It is outrageous that taxpayers are footing the $30,000 a month bill so Hunter Biden can live a life of luxury,’ Taxpayers Protection Alliance President David Williams told DailyMail.com.
‘While most Americans are struggling to make ends meet with surging inflation, Hunter Biden is “living high off the hog,”… and taxpayers. In addition to protecting Hunter Biden, there needs to be more effort to protect taxpayers.’
A retired Secret Service agent told ABC that the cost was ‘relative.’
He and his wife Melissa Cohen (pictured) along with their young son are under constant Secret Service protection in their wealthy Malibu, California neighborhood
‘Hunter’s out in Malibu, which is not a low-cost area…And the Trump kids, too, they didn’t live in low-cost areas,’ he said, adding that it would do ‘no good’ for the agency to ‘have a command post in the next town over.’
The Secret Service paid at least $1.2 million at Donald Trump-owned properties alone to protect the family of the former president, an analysis by the Washington Post found in late 2020.
While Trump was in the White House, agents paid $3,000 per month for a studio apartment in Washington, DC to provide security for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
The hefty rent price was only meant to make bathroom arrangements for Secret Service agents after Kushner and Trump reportedly refused to let them use the toilet in their home.
Former President Barack Obama’s glamorous getaways while he was in office raised eyebrows as well. Just one August 2016 trip to Martha’s Vineyard cost roughly $2.7 million, according to Judicial Watch. A trip to Hawaii later that year cost taxpayers $1.9 million.
Then-Vice President Joe Biden reportedly raked in $2,200 per month in rent as a landlord to the Secret Service who was protecting him on his Delaware property at the time.
A progressive lobbyist who spoke with ABC said the Secret Service’s rent costs to protect Hunter present an ‘unconscionable burden’ on taxpayers.
‘Ivanka and Jared should have opened up their house to the Secret Service, just as Hunter Biden should do at his Malibu residence,’ Craig Holman said.
The Secret Service is tasked with protecting the president, their family and other high-ranking government officials. The agency told DailyMail.com when reached for comment about Hunter’s security: ‘Due to the need to maintain operational security, the U.S. Secret Service does not comment on the means, methods or resources to conduct our protective operations’
A retired Secret Service agent told ABC that the cost of protection was ‘relative’ and the heightened security risks around these individuals mean the agency needs to pay market value for the closest possible protection
‘A cost of $30,000 a month for the Secret Service to rent a home in Malibu next to Hunter is an unconscionable burden to taxpayers, all for the personal benefit of Hunter Biden. Hunter should realize this and accommodate his security detail in his own home.’
It comes after White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain was forced to defend Hunter on Sunday, claiming that the president is ‘confident’ that his son ‘didn’t break the law’ even as a federal probe into the 52-year-old recovering drug addict’s foreign business dealings heats up.
The senior White House official appeared on ABC’s This Week two days after it was reported that a federal grand jury has been hearing testimony in recent months about Hunter Biden’s cash flow while serving on the board of Ukraine energy company Burisma.
During his television interview Klain vehemently denied that the White House has reached out to the Justice Department about the probe, which is being conducted out of the president’s home state of Delaware.
‘Of course the president’s confident that his son didn’t break the law,’ Klain said.
‘But most importantly, as I said, that’s a matter that’s to be decided by the Justice Department, by the legal process. It’s something that no one at the White House has involvement in.’
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain was forced to defend his boss President Joe Biden amid an onslaught of ethical questions prompted by the New York Times authenticating a laptop allegedly belonging to his son Hunter
Klain was also asked about a recent Washington Post report that revealed entities controlled by Hunter and his uncle James Biden were paid nearly $5 million over the course of 14 months by a Chinese energy firm.
The payments allegedly began in 2017 and were made by CEFC China Energy, a company with strong ties to Beijing’s communist government.
In its report the Post cited newly revealed government records, bank statements and emails obtained from a hard drive supposedly belonging to Hunter — which had until very recently been discredited by most media outlets as ‘Russian disinformation.’
‘Is the president confident his family didn’t cross any ethical lines?’ host George Stephanopoulos asked on Sunday.
Klain replied, ‘George, the president is confident that his family did the right thing.’
‘But, again, I want to just be really clear, these are actions by Hunter and his brother. They’re private matters. They don’t involve the president,’ he added.
‘And they certainly are something that no one at the White House is involved in.’
The contents of the laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter were first reported on by the New York Post in October 2020, and was authenticated by DailyMail.com early the next year.
An ongoing federal probe into Hunter Biden’s business dealings has heated up in recent months. That combined with the newly-granted legitimacy of the laptop hard drive that was first reported upon by the New York Post in October 2020 have posed new ethics headaches for the White House
It contains a vast tranche of email correspondences shedding light on Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine and China — many while his father was vice president — as well as lewd images of sex acts, prostitution and drug use.
However, what Republicans hoped would be a massive roadblock in Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign was quickly dismissed and ignored by most mainstream media outlets until the New York Times claimed to have authenticated it last month.
The Washington Post’s subsequent report using evidence recovered from the laptop has forced a reckoning within the news media and prompted an onslaught of scrutiny for the White House over what exactly Biden knew and when.
To date, however, the president has not been implicated in any wrongdoing whatsoever.
And despite maintaining very public distance from the federal investigation, Biden’s aides have been forced to defend Hunter when questioned about the matter.
At the daily press briefing on Friday, NBC reporter Kristin Welker asked Communications Director Kate Bedingfield about the president’s last 2020 debate against Donald Trump, where he declared ‘My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, talking about China.’
‘We absolutely stand by the president’s comment,’ Bedingfield replied.
‘And I would point you to the reporting on this, which referenced statements that we made at the time, that we gave to the Washington Post, who worked on this story. But as you know, I don’t speak for Hunter Biden so there’s not more I can say on that.’
The breakdown of the stake in the business, including the 10% to the ‘Big Guy’, were revealed in an email last year. Stefanik said finding out who that is could be ‘the most critical question’ that Republicans have for Hunter Biden
Extracts from one email published show how Hunter Biden was to be paid $850,000 in part of his arrangement with the Chinese firm
In its story revealing the $4.8 million in payments to the Bidens, the Post said the White House ‘declined to respond on the record but pointed to previous statements that Joe Biden “has never even considered being involved in business with his family, nor in any overseas business whatsoever’.”
However, at least one email unearthed from the hard drive appears to show a prospective agreement breaking down ownership stakes in the Chinese energy deal with 10 percent of profits allocated to someone only known as ‘the big guy.’
The monicker is found in an email on the hard drive to Hunter Biden from his business partner James Gilliar.
It’s not confirmed who the ‘big guy’ is, but some Republican lawmakers have speculated it to mean the president.
Tony Bobulinski, another former business partner of Hunter Biden’s, also previously pointed the finger at Joe Biden.
House GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-most powerful Republican in the lower chamber of Congress, told the New York Post last week that her party would subpoena Hunter Biden if they took back control fo Congress in the midterms.
It remains unclear whether Hunter might be charged in the ongoing federal probe. But the grand jury activity underscores that a federal tax investigation that began in 2018 remains active as prosecutors continue to examine foreign payments and other aspects of his finances.
A lawyer for Hunter Biden did not return a phone message and email seeking comment on Friday.
A Justice Department spokesman deferred a request for comment to the US attorney’s office in Delaware, which is handling the investigation. A spokesperson for the office did not return a phone message seeking comment.
The people familiar with the investigation and shed light on the grand jury activity could not discuss details of the ongoing probe publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has not shed any light publicly on the investigation. But the Justice Department did leave in place the top federal prosecutor in Delaware – -David Weiss, a Trump administration holdover — presumably as a way to ensure continuity.
Hunter Biden confirmed the existence of an investigation into his taxes in December 2020, one month after the presidential election.
The laptop, which the New York Times recently authenticated long after right-wing media outlets were blasted for reporting about it, contains compromising and embarrassing images of Hunter Biden
In some of the pictures, Hunter Biden is seen with a crack pipe hanging out of his mouth. His past struggles with drug addiction have been well documented
He said in a statement at the time that he was ‘confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.’
The Associated Press reported later that month that a subpoena served on the younger Biden sought information related to more than two dozen entities. One was Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company whose board he had joined when his father was vice president.
That move sparked concerns about a potential conflict of interest given that elder Biden was deeply involved in US policy toward Ukraine during the Obama administration.
The breadth of the subpoena highlighted the wide-ranging scope of the investigation into Hunter Biden, though there is no indication that the probe includes any scrutiny of the president himself.
Biden has said he did not discuss his son’s international business dealings with him and has denied having ever taken money from a foreign country.
Witnesses in recent months have been questioned about payments Hunter Biden received while serving on the Burisma board, the people familiar with the probe said.
Source: dailymail
