The California real estate investor who purchased Hunter Biden’s art has landed more than a dozen private White House visits, including a one-on-one meeting with one of President Joe Biden’s most senior advisers.
Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali has visited the White House at least 13 times since December 2021, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of White House visitor logs. Naftali attended several large events at the White House but has also had several more intimate visits. She met White House senior adviser Neera Tanden on March 21, the visitor logs show.
Naftali was identified Monday as a buyer of Hunter Biden’s art work, a revelation that raises significant ethics concerns for the White House. President Joe Biden appointed Naftali, who owns a commercial real estate firm in Los Angeles, to the prestigious Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad just nine months after the younger Biden’s first art show. Naftali has donated more than $13,000 to the Biden campaign and $36,500 to the Democratic National Committee.
The White House promised that they would install "reasonable safeguards" around Hunter Biden’s art show, and claimed all buyers would remain anonymous. But Naftali’s visits could cast doubt on those claims, particularly as Business Insider reported that Hunter Biden knew the identity of at least one buyer: his close friend and adviser Kevin Morris, who has loaned the embattled first son millions of dollars.
Hunter Biden has suggested in the past that he holds influence over the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. In March 2015, Hunter Biden’s cousin, Missy Owens, asked whether he could secure a spot at the agency for her mother.
Hunter Biden responded by recalling a time when "Eric"—presumably his business partner Eric Schwerin—asked about an appointment there in 2008. Schwerin was confirmed to a post on the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad in 2015.
All of Naftali’s White House visits occurred after Hunter Biden’s first art show opened in New York City in November 2021. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
In addition to the meeting with Tanden, a longtime Democratic operative, Naftali met with White House policy adviser Richard Figueroa on Dec. 14, 2021, and Sept. 14, 2022. She visited the West Wing with six other people on Sept. 15, 2022, and the East Wing residence with around forty others on Sept. 17, 2022.
Despite little experience in the art world, Hunter Biden has sold at least $1.3 million of his works, including $875,000 worth of paintings to a single anonymous patron. Those art purchases have likely provided a lifeline to Hunter Biden as he faces a series of legal and financial problems.
Hunter Biden was indicted last month on misdemeanor charges of failing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. He also pleaded guilty to a felony gun charge for owning a firearm while addicted to drugs.
Hunter Biden settled a paternity lawsuit last month involving his four-year-old daughter, whom the Biden family has refused to acknowledge. Hunter agreed to pay $5,000 in monthly child support and give his daughter some of his paintings as part of the settlement.