Florida congressman to introduce transparency bill targeting Biden family members

A Florida Republican congressman is set to introduce a bill requiring presidents and vice presidents provide financial disclosures for their non-dependent children ahead of Hunter Biden’s much-criticized art exhibition.

Rep. Michael Waltz told Fox News Tuesday his legislation, the Preventing Anonymous Income by Necessitating Transparency of Executive Relatives (PAINTER) Act, is a bid to stop “the obvious and shameless grift that’s going on with Hunter Biden’s art sales, for which he is obviously not qualified to do and is only doing to continue to profit off of his family name.”

The first son will present a solo exhibition of 15 paintings at galleries in New York and Los Angeles this fall. Prices for the art will range from $75,000 for works on paper to $500,000 for the larger canvases.

Critics have warned that would-be purchasers of Hunter’s art could spend big money not to purchase a masterpiece, but to curry favor with the West Wing.

“The whole thing is a really bad idea,” former George W. Bush chief ethics lawyer Richard Painter told The Washington Post earlier this month. “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. I mean, those are awfully high prices.”

The rumblings grew after The Washington Post reported last month that White House officials had helped hammer out an agreement to keep the identity of buyers confidential. They grew louder still when a spokeswoman for the gallery hosting the exhibit said Hunter Biden would appear at events with potential buyers in both cities. 

That appeared to contradict a claim by White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who said earlier this month that “the gallerist will not share information about buyers or prospective buyers, including their identities, with Hunter Biden or the administration”.

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