The Great Divorce

The divorce between Hunter Biden and his first wife, Kathleen Buhle, has lready been the subject of supposed tell-all books from both parties, but their accounts are both heavily sanitized and leave out more than they reveal. For instance, this Vanity Fair story on Kathleen's book, If We Break, quotes this on Hunter's alcoholism and addiction:

Buhle shares that she first began noticing Hunter's drinking might be a problem around 2001 after the birth of their second child when he took a job as a partner at a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. which led to a lot of late nights and long periods away from their home in Delaware. “I watched his drinking spiral from social to problematic,” she writes. “Watching how much he could consume scared me…For the first time, I didn’t trust my husband.” By the fall of 2003, Hunter entered rehab for the first time and, when he returned, the author says their marriage “felt stronger than ever.” But after seven years of sobriety, Hunter relapsed again only to deny it, forcing Buhle into the permanent role of sobriety detective.

But otherwise, her account goes into very little detail. However, a lengthy story in the UK Daily Mail from March 7, 2017 reports on the initial divorce filing and other legal documents in the case that often contradict both parties' self-serving accounts.

Kathleen is asking for a divorce and sole custody of her minor child with husband Robert 'Hunter' Biden in documents filed on December 9 of last year.

That is over a year after Kathleen claims she and Hunter formally separated in October 2015, which was three months after she kicked him out of their home on July 5, 2015 because of 'his conduct the night before.'

Kathleen does not detail that conduct in her filing, which would have occurred one month after Hunter lost his brother Beau to brain cancer.

. . . July 4, 2015, is when Hunter allegedly committed the offense that Kathleen references in her divorce filing.

The filing goes on to outline indirectly a situation in which neither Kathleen nor their three children were in the family home on that night, but something happened there involving Hunter, while it also suggests significantly that "Hallie's two children were also not home as her father-in-law [Joe] also took along her son Hunter and daughter Natalie on [a] trip." But anyhow, with neither Hallie nor Hunter encumbered by kids,

'His recent conduct creates situations that are unsafe or traumatic for the parties' children and his judgment, is frequently impaired,' wrote Kathleen in the filing.

It's hard not to connect the dots and surmise that Hallie and Hunter were in Hunter's and Kathleen's home creating a situation "unsafe or traumatic" for the children under conditions in which they were impaired. However, Kathleen says in her book, according to the Vanity Fair link,

A year after Beau's death, Buhle finally discovers the true nature of Hunter and Hallie's relationship when their middle daughter Finnegan reads a text conversation between them on Hunter's phone.

This version would have put her discovery in 2016, which matches at least some of Hunter's accounts, when evidence, including the elliptical reference in Kathleen's own divorce filing, suggests it had begun at least a year earlier and likely before Beau's death, and it likely had included cocaine use throughout. And she's delicately vague about when she knew of Hunter's addiction. Again per Vanity Fair:

After over a decade spent grappling with her husband's alcoholism, Buhle admits that the reality that Hunter might also be using drugs had never even occurred to her. That is until he confessed in late 2013 that, earlier that summer, he had failed a drug test necessary to join the Navy, testing positive for cocaine—a drug he completely denies having taken.

This was possibly the same episode that resulted in his administrative discharge from tne Navy Reserve in February 2014. It seems to me that it would be important to her, both as a question of self-esteem and for legal reasons, to minimize her knowledge, and consequently her complicity, in Hunter's prior drug use and other conduct in order to maintain her sole custody of the remaining minor daughter. Thus she is largely on board with Hunter's own sanitized version of his married life with her.

The divoirce filing also corroborates other information in the saga of Hunter's finances. In the UK Daily Mail story,

On or about February 17, 2017, Ms. Biden learned that Mr. Biden was in possession of a large diamond, on information and belief worth approximately $80,000,' states the motion.

'When Ms. Biden, through counsel, asked Mr. Biden to place the diamond in a safety deposit box accessible only to both parties together, Mr. Biden, through counsel, denied possession of the diamond.'

Hunter has now admitted to being in possession of the diamond according to the motion.

This would correspond to a meeting between Hunter and Chinese energy official Ye Jianming in Miami

Biden says he offered to use his contacts to help “identify investment opportunities for Ye’s company CEFC China Energy, in liquified natural gas projects in the United States.” After the dinner, Ye sends a 2.8-carat diamond to Hunter’s hotel room with a card thanking him for the meeting.

The divorce filing covers other Hunter financial issues in detail. For instance, according to the Daily Mail,

Hunter 'secretly continued to spend lavishly' according to Kathleen's motion, and at one point 'instructed a large payment of marital income ($122,179) be made to a TD Bank account in his sole name.'

That money could not be touched by Kathleen or Hunter's office according to the filing, which then claims: 'On information and belief, taxes were not withheld from these funds.'

And Kathleen at minimum knew of bounced checks, declined credit cards, and overdrafts. According to CNN,

Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, wrote a recent memoir chronicling the rockiness of the couple’s finances when they were married. “More than once my debit card was declined at a store. I’d have to call Hunter to transfer money into my account,” she wrote in her memoir published earlier this year. “Hunter and I drove nice cars and had a beautiful home, but we were running fast on that hamster wheel and barely staying on.”

In 2018, Buhle wrote to Morgan, the accountant, who has since died, seeking advice about an IRS tax lien based on an unpaid bill of $112,805.

Buhle said she was at “a loss” and asked Morgan to “Please advise.”

"Please advise", I guess, but don't tell me too much. Notwitstanding the detailed account of Hunter's finances in the divorce filing, she claims she was kept in the dark:

Buhle claimed complete ignorance of her husband's income and tax situation, saying that she hopes women will learn from her mistakes and become more aware of their own finances.

Well, that's not really borne out. She was happy not to think about things as long as her name was Biden and they drove nice cars and had a beautiful home, but that doesn't mean she wasn't complicit. This is the overall problem with Bidenworld. Everyone was along for the ride until they all ran out of gas. What's intriguing about Hunter's lifestyle is that as of 2017-18, two women, his ex-wife Kathleen and his baby mama Lunden Roberts, had legal claim to money from Hunter, several other "associates" could claim back wages, but two, including Hallie, could get nothing at all but still rode along. I'll have more on this tomorrow.