Disgraced convicted felon Hunter Biden has reportedly been joining his embattled father and top aides in official meetings at the White House since the Biden family returned from Camp David, Monday evening.
The Biden family gathered at Camp David over the weekend, where Joe Biden sat for a previously scheduled photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz for the upcoming Democrat National Convention.
While staying at the presidential retreat in Maryland, according to reports, the family took the opportunity to urge him to stay in the race and keep fighting despite his humiliating debate performance.
Since then, the scandal-plagued younger Biden has “popped into” official White House meetings and phone calls with advisors, four people familiar with the matter told NBC.
Hunter has also reportedly been spotted talking to senior White House staff, prompting some to ask how the convicted felon could have a security clearance to be included in such high-level discussions at the White House.
According to the sources, Joe Biden’s aides were “struck” by Hunter’s new advisory role.
“What the hell is happening?” senior White House staff is quoted to have said.
Asked for comment, White House spokesman Andrew Bates told NBC News: “Hunter came back with the President from their family weekend at Camp David and went with the President straight into speech prep.”
Bates was referring to Biden’s angry and inaccurate teleprompter speech decrying the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on presidential immunity. After his four minute diatribe, Biden left the podium without taking any questions.
Hunter’s elevated role at the White House comes less than a month after a jury in Wilmington, Delaware found him guilty of all three federal gun charges tied to his possession of a gun while abusing drugs, and a year after a stash of cocaine was found on White House grounds.
The first son faces up to 25 years in prison for lying on a federal screening form about his drug use, lying to a gun dealer and possessing the gun.
Hunter still faces a tax evasion federal trial in California this coming September.
More serious charges related to money laundering, bribery, illegal influence peddling, and operating as an unregistered foreign agent of corrupt foreign governments were never brought against the first son.
The gun and tax evasion charges came only after U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected the “sweetheart” plea deal between Special Counsel Delaware United States attorney David Weiss and the defendant.
Since Joe Biden’s catastrophic debate performance, two factions within the Democrat party have been locked in a fierce battle over his political future, with one group of Democrats calling on him to end his reelection campaign, and the other group, reportedly led by Jill Biden, his family and his allies in the intelligence community, urging him to stay in.
Update:
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Tuesday that Hunter participated in at least one meeting at the White House. w
“Look, the president, as you know, is very close to his family,” Jean-Pierre said. “This is a holiday week, 4th of July. He spent time with his family, as you all know, and reported at Camp David. Hunter came back with him and walked with him into that meeting, that prep, that speech prep, and, you know, he ended up spending time with his dad and his family that night. That is basically what happened.”
She continued: “It is a week where there are going to be more family members who are going to come to the White House. I’m sure you’ll see some of them on the 4th of July. Many more are expected to be here.”
When asked if Hunter is participating in meetings with senior advisors, Jean-Pierre reiterated that Hunter had joined the speech prep meeting with his dad when they came back from Camp David.
“What I can say is that he came back with his dad from Camp David. He walked him into the speech prep and he was in the room,” she said. “That I can tell you. He was in the room.”
Jean-Pierre added: “Anything else coming out of that reporting I can’t speak to. But I can say that, you know, he’s close to his family, which is not unusual. They were together at Camp David. They came back together. You’re going to see a lot more family this week.”
Hunter has more incentive than anyone to keep his dad in the White House - it’s called indictment for crimes.