Sunday, July 30, 2023

Yup, Hunter's Left The White House

In a story that I think confirms my speculation in Friday's post, the New York Post reported on Friday:

The first son cut a dejected figure as he arrived at Los Angeles’ Van Nuys Airport in a private plane early Friday — as a documentary filmmaker captured his every move.

Hunter, 53, touched down just before 1 a.m. SoCal time, more than 36 hours after Delaware US District Judge Maryellen Noreika blew the whistle on a wrist-slap plea agreement cooked up by Hunter’s attorneys and father Joe’s Department of Justice.

As an airport worker retrieved Hunter’s bags, the first son was consoled on the tarmac by an unidentified friend sporting a Yankees cap and a mustard-colored sweater. A camera operator observed the scene a few feet away.

The Post had nothing to say about whose jet this was, but I think we can assume it was the same one that he flew in with Kevin Morris to Philadelphia Tuesday night to attend his Delaware court session, Kevin Morris's plane.

I think this helps firm up a timeline. It seems to be generally understood, although there are no public White House logs to confirm or disprove it, that Hunter had been in residence there since sometime last year. In the weekends prior to this past July 4, including the holiday weekend itself, Hunter had accompanied Joe to Camp David. In the inquiries after the discovery of the baggie outside the Situation Room, it was acknowledged that Hunter had been in the White House just before the family departed for Camp David.

A uniformed Secret Service officer discovered the baggie during the evening of July 2 while the family was still away. By the afternoon of July 4, Hunter, Joe, Dr Jill, and little Beau were filmed on the White House balcony during a vignette in which Hunter stepped away briefly to do something with his nose, to the evident discomfort of Joe and Dr Jill. (Mrs Hunter, Melissa Cohen, wasn't in the scene.)

Over the following week, gosh darn, the Secret Service announced the baggie could have belonged to any of 500 people and dropped further investigation.

The next we heard of Hunter's whereabouts, according to the UK Daily Mail, Hunter was in LA on July 21 paying Kevin Morris a visit, during which Mr Morris stepped out onto his balcony to take a hit from a bong. Then, on July 25, Morris flew Hunter from LA to Philadelphia to attend the court hearing the following day.

The last time Kevin Morris made the news in his private jet was this past April 30, when he flew from Los Angeles to Dulles Airport, where he picked up Hunter and flew him back to

Newport Municipal Airport in Jackson County, [AR,] 34 miles from the Independence County Courthouse in Batesville, where Biden attended [a court] hearing the next morning.

When the hearing concluded, Morris flew Hunter back to Dulles. This is further suggestion that as of April, Hunter was operating out of the White House. But it's worth pointing out another data point farther down in the story at that link:

Flight records show the aircraft landing in or taking off from Fayetteville, Ark. at least nine times between February 2022 and April 2023.

Fayetteville is the home of Edward Prewitt, Hunter Biden’s financial advisor.

Laptop emails show Prewitt had access to several business accounts linked to Hunter Biden.

Morris — reached by phone in Hawaii — declined to comment.

So we have some level of suggestion that up to the time of the Secret Service investigation into the baggie, Hunter had been living at the White House, certainly since last spring. Then, following the July 2 discovery of the baggie and the apparent public bump on the balcony, Hunter is no longer at the White House, and the Secret Service is driving him around LA instead.

My hypothesis continues to be that some combination of remonstrances from Joe's staff and the Secret Service led to a decision to put more distance between Hunter and Joe, sending him back to LA and relying on some combination of Kevin Morris amd an LA Secret Service detail to babysit the First Cokehead, at least for the time being.

But in light of the new conditions for Hunter's pretrial release, which include not to use alcohol at all, not to use or unlawfully possess a narcotic drug, and not to break any federal, state, or local law, this would seem to be a high-risk strategy.

But let's leave aside the cost to the taxpayer of using the Secret Service as Hunter's minders and limo service. It looks like Kevin Morris is flying Hunter around the country whenever he needs it, and he's paying, apparently, for Hunter's legal bills in the multimillions, plus pocket money for Hunter, who is otherwise unemployed, traveling around money for Melissa, plus whatever the current costs are for separate living arrangements for Hunter, Melissa, and little Beau, plus Beau's nannies and daycare.

This is a lot for Mr Morris to be picking up, even if there's a quid pro quo. But what on earth could Mr Morris want to buy for that much money? What's behind all this? Is it even coming out of Mr Morris's resources, or is someone paying him back?