Hunter Biden is no Van Gogh. In addition to having both ears, Hunter’s work has generally been panned beyond an enabling media following. However, he claims he is also a starving artist. The problem appears to be that, as predicted years ago, his sales dried up with the influence-peddling market once his father left office. Now, his lawyers want him to cough up $17 million that he owes them. Hunter says that not only is he broke, but so is his family.
In a deposition in ongoing litigation with the law firm Winston Taylor, Hunter claimed an inability to pay the $17 million he owes his lawyers for representing him in criminal prosecutions, congressional investigations, and civil lawsuits.
Hunter claimed under oath that “I don’t own anything of any value other than — and I don’t know the value of it — my paintings which I painted myself. So that’s it. And I don’t even have any other assets at all, stocks, bonds, anything like that, savings accounts.” He also added, “My family doesn’t have any money, and it’s not their debt anyway.”
The statement about his family is curious, since Joe and Jill Biden recently received numerous book contracts and were thought to be worth millions. However, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that Joe Biden is struggling with $800,000 in debt and, ironically, increased property taxes in his blue state of Delaware on his $2.7 million home. (Moving to Florida like many fleeing blue state taxes is not a viable option for the Bidens).
Worse yet, no one wants Biden to do speeches and appearances, cutting off a lucrative post-presidency income. Not only is Biden obviously diminished in his ability to give a speech, but many Democrats blame him for the reelection of Trump by clinging to power despite his obvious deteriorating mental and physical condition.
Of course, the former president still rakes in more than $400,000 a year in government pensions.
Yet, in the end, Hunter is correct. It is not their debt unless they signed as guarantors on any debt.
Hunter continues to be the darling of the media with podcasts and interviews, including some who have called for him to run for president. He has lived in mansions and luxurious hotels for much of his life. However, that lifestyle was subsidized by wealthy Democratic donors and friends.
What is impressive is how Hunter could burn through millions accrued from alleged influence peddling and shady deals.
Notably, Fox News reports that the law firm, which is known for representing Democratic figures, has tried to connect Biden with donors to help him cover his legal bills, without success. With his father out of power, no one is willing to bankroll his lifestyle or buy his art.
Gone are the former swaggering threats that Hunter could make to shake down foreign figures. There was a time when he only needed to pick up a phone and send a text message like the one to a Chinese businessman, openly threatening Joe Biden’s displeasure if money is not sent to them immediately. In the WhatsApp message, Hunter stated:
“I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the Chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
No one is answering now.
Hunter insisted that he is now virtually destitute: “I don’t have any assets. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a phone.”
Even his recent dubious award of $1.7 million in a defamation case was immediately claimed by the law firm, though that award can and should be appealed.
Hunter has written extensively on his struggle with drugs and alcohol. It is a great achievement to have overcome those addictions. Yet, the accounts would be more compelling if he did not unleash a scorched-earth campaign against critics when he was sober. He sued or threatened to sue a wide array of people to try to muscle them into silence. I was one of those threatened with a defamation lawsuit by his friend and sponsor Kevin Morris for writing about their curious relationship.
Hunter gamed the system on his crimes and was ultimately rescued from prison only by his father breaking his repeated public promise not to pardon his son.
Yet, Hunter is likely to live well as a ward of the privileged class. He remains the toast of the town for the left, a type of foul-mouthed prophet who claims to have been liberated by his own excesses. For those of us who have long been critics of his antics, it remains a bit too familiar.
Hunter makes even being broke look like a grift.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
Like father. Like son! Con job Biden Family!
Hunter, have you tried getting a real job?
“I …own a car, own a phone. “ hummm? Does he own a laptop?
BINGO! – You nailed it John Schwarz ( Laptop – 😂 )
It is a long-standing business/finance adage that if you owe a bank 100 dollars you have a problem; but if you owe a bank 100 million dollars they have the problem. That said he has probably squirreled away plenty of cash where his lawyers can’t get to it. He’ll be back to flying private in a few years after all the court cases are done. Our political royalty rarely goes to the poor house or to jail.
Is anyone really surprised?
Does anyone really care about this sorry excuse for a human being. I only feel sorry for his daughter and her mother.
He is still part of the cabal that did this nation grievous harm; he is one of many assets that the prog/left can use; even if it is only as a flash point of diversion. Yes, all snakes need watching until they die.
While we should always keep our senses alert when around a snake in the grass, when the danger of the snake is minimized, we tend to turn our attention to more relevant things.
So why are we still obsessed with this reptile? Because we know that he is still a part of that great tangle of snakes hidden under a rock and wishing us harm. I’m no one to enjoy a reptile, even as one caged in a zoo, but this particular species of snake deserves watching.
Someone has to be on guard for snakes in the grass so I am perfectly content to let Turley keep tabs on him while I tend to far better interests than an aging reptile who knows where all the bodies are buried.
Good choice of words… reptile. Reminds us of you. Can’t go thru life fat and stupid old woman. But somehow you manged eh?
Always dependable for an idiotic and smarmy remark – it’s your trademark (only) move and it is now the awaited moment for us to see just how moronic you can be on any given day. Since you can’t visualize me, how can you opine on my weight; or is that just the standard epithet to include in your package of vitriol?
whimsicalmama,
Here is annony, having one of his mental meltdowns in pubic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1_DGJvIz8U
A spoiled brat toddler tantrum for sure. I doubt if his mental age has advanced beyond the toddler stage. How is this nation going to survive with this type of moronic, mentally unhinged population. We are surely ripe for an islamist/communist take over the moment the last sane boomer dies. And while I trust most male millennials, I wouldn’t trust most females of that ilk as they tend to react with misplaced emotions rather than logic and are probably the prime enablers of the mess we see now in our nation. The sad-sack generations that followed do only that – follow the latest shiny thing.
Definitely Annony, blue hair and all, screaming irrationally in every post.
Why does he deserve attention from conservatives?
When I see all the spotlight the right puts on leftist figures, it’s almost as if we can’t accept the responsibilities of governing power and discuss the tough policy decisions to improve the country. What are we going to do about AI? About China and foreign-enemy social media influence? About individual privacy rights being swallowed up by the biggest corporations? What about the faltering marriage and birth rate? About public schools graduating know nothing slouches? About chem and plastics pollution of the food chain?
A column on Hunter Biden is another day wasted on escapist political infotainment.
Translation: you didnt get laid last night (making it 20+ yrs since your last happy ending) and the gheys of WeHo see through your scores of catfish profiles on grindr.
“When I see all the spotlight the right puts on leftist figures, it’s almost as if WE can’t accept the responsibilities”
Do you seriously consider yourself part of the “right” in political terms? I would very much differ with that characterization based on your posts and opinions here, and as a conservative-leaning libertarian, I do not even consider myself to be in that category. Maybe you are part of what passes for “the right” in the USSC (United Soviet Socialist California)?
Real conservatives get past superficial labels and identities, and engage with complex ideas without resorting to cheap ad-hominems. The same with real libertarians. The way you post carries the stench of identitarianist- oppo-branding…i.e., the same way progressives deal with conflict. You can do better.
“…resorting to cheap ad-hominems.”
Oh GFY. Point out the ad hom in my post, if you believe you can. The last line was a question, btw, and a serious (and I think legitimate) one. I have seen some at least quasi-collectivist ideas promoted in some of your posts here over time. I’ve been a libertarian (small “l”) since about the time Nixon was POTUS (I was an Ayn Rand Objectivist prior to that), and have remained largely the same as such a political position modestly waxed and waned in popularity (a quality that mattered little to me) over the intervening years. At one time, I was liberal (so to speak) on immigration because I was then ignorant of the fact that it can be manipulated to become a potent weapon against a culture that embraces it. Once thing that has not changed in all that time is my strenuous objection to any form of collectivism being promoted by government. Collectivism doesn’t need to be assigned to either end of a political spectrum to declare it fundamentally evil.
“What are we going to do . . .”
First you’re going to change “we” to I.
Then *you* are going to start your own blog.
Johnathan’s column raises what may be a whole new chapter on the Biden Chronicles. Stiffed, unpaid lawyers seeking creditors rights. Hunter’s deposition testimony under oath that he is insolvent. Those are ingredients for debtor relief under U. S. Code Title 11 Bankruptcy. We don’t know if Hunter testified pro se or has counsel of record in the case, nor whether that counsel is known for bankruptcy debtor representation. The question is whether the Biden Chronicles continue with grift, or short circuit into a filing, notice of bankruptcy, and the automatic stay of 11 U.S.C. § 362. That said, this writer does not see that Hunter will emerge as a sympathetic figure, on an all events basis.
There is no more Biden grift. It depended upon Joe being in power, or at least remaining sufficiently sentient in retirement so that he could remember what strings to pull. All of that is gone. Hunter’s problem now is that although he was given many advantages in life, he never possessed any self-discipline. His drug use and all the rest of his problems were just symptoms of that lack. Unlikely anything is going to get better for him.
Looks like the Biden family will fade ignominiously into nothingness. And quickly.
This wet sack of moral and ethical turpitude continues to enjoy a soap box provided by individuals with a moral high ground less than his own.
So sez the worm behind the anon meme.
Oh, look. Annony has to pretend to be someone else. Who really is the worm? Here is a hint: He is also a failure to launch.
Hunter is a white male so he will never be a viable Democrat nominee for President, which would enable them to put the ole gang back together and start vacuuming up the dough. again. However, there is an obvious solution. Change his name to Huntress, chop off his wanker, start wearing dresses and he will likely be the Democrat nominee for President in 2028.
As a side note, I wonder if Joe, Jill and Huntress have had time to meet Navy, their grandchild/child? The MSM has assured us they are such a tight, loving clan. Navy is only seven years old. Maybe it’s too soon and they haven’t had time to meet her yet.
Who cares? And a law firm representing Hunter Biden deserves what it gets.
“What is impressive is how Hunter could burn through millions –allegedly– accrued from alleged influence peddling and shady deals.”
Corrected with the insertion of “allegedly”.
Strange observation to make anyway – one of the major puzzlements is the number of people who have won tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in US based lotteries only to be completely broke just a few years later.
Add to that, that telling people one has the ear of someone with influence does not mean one does have the ear of someone with influence, at least to the extent it includes the ability to lead that influential person around by that ear.
I have formal legal education, so please inform what the legal term for baseless assertions that appear to impugn someone are called in a lawsuit, even if those baseless assertions seem incredibly stupid to make.
A “formal legal education?” What does that mean? Anyone with a legal education knows there’s such a thing as NYT Co. v. Sullivan standard for public figures. That pesky “actual malice” standard of proof. Try reading the opinion and get back to us on your law school education assessment above. The citation is helpful: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254. Its progeny are plentiful.
Reading is fundamental.
“burn through millions accrued from alleged influence peddling and shady deals.”
Hunter DID burn through millions he ‘accrued’. The allegation of where he got the money comes AFTER that FACT in JT’s sentence.
You don’t like the fact that the the criminal son of that corpse-in-chief, somehow unexplained to us mere mortals, can spend that amount of money so foolishly and quickly on unknowns. If you remember, Ole Joe himself kinda shamed Hunter with his “My amazingly wonderful and good son is dead” in every campaign speech. Now how’s that supposed to make disappointment hunter feel? Hunter is the goat of rich kid rebellious teenage angst carried over into adulthood.
The Grifters remake will feature the Biden Crime Syndicate.
I think this story is mostly BS. Not what Prof. Turley is telling us but the part that this law firm would extend themselves that far to represent a worthless, lying drug addict. They would know his family financial situation better than anyone. Did they think he had $17mil just laying around? The law firm is probably hoping to use this highly inflated bad debt loss to offset gains from other parts of their practice.
Ding-ding-ding.
That is the most likely correct answer.
Well the part where hunter welches on his debts is the story and the fact that the lawyers are trying to recoup says what?
There is no evidence that this law firm is insincere in trying to collect from a deadbeat.
IIRC, the failure of a client to pay a bill does not generate a deductible loss for the law firm. If there is $17M still owing, I wonder how much the firm was paid before the gravy train ground to a halt, and when the payments actually ceased.
-g
The smartest guy Joe Biden knows.
That’s why the “chip off the ole block” needs to run for President. Suddenly, his artwork will have value again, he can pay his family out of campaign accounts, and he will be flush with cash again.
You’ve covered the “Biden Crime Family” well. But will you ever write anything about the open and notorious Trump corruption?
Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow, Larry and Rosie O’Donnell have that libelous beat.
Bingo.
well why not give us one tiny detail about his Trump corruption you seem to be so sincere about?
And why not tell us how you feel about the documented crimes of Hunter?
We have those written down, not just locked in some TDS patient’s therapy session.
PSA: “You can be sure it’s TDS when specifics are omitted”
Well the old story of Crack and Ho’s still holds – both will take ALL YOUR MONEY!! Oh well, Skid Row is calling!!! Unless Mom & Dad let him stay at in the Main House!!!
Where’s Dustoff? Oh, he’s hiding behind “K”.
Dustoff aka K is the Hunter Biden of the Turley blog.
Oh, but you and Hunter have so much in common! You are both broke and have to rely on mommy and daddy for everything.
F you
I’m not Dustoff you F..G MORON. Iv’e been here for years. Keep up 8 year old MORON ANON!! First everyone was Estovir now everyone is Dustoff? What a DF PSYCHO!!
ANON IS THE DF MORON OF THE TURLEY BLOG!! HAS TO POST 50 TIMES PER DAY WITH MORONIC REPLIES!!! TAKE YOUR MEDS!!