(The Hill) — The Secret Service is allegedly spending more than $30,000 each month renting out a Malibu mansion in California to protect President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, according to a new report by ABC News.
Hunter Biden, who is under federal investigation for his foreign business dealings, has been staying in Malibu throughout his father’s presidency, spending $20,000 of his own wealth each month to rent out a mansion, according to the report. The Secret Service, the agency responsible for protecting the president and his family, spends even more money per month on a mansion nearby to protect him, according to the report.
Sources told ABC News the Secret Service chose the mansion, where a team of agents live and work, to be as close as possible to Hunter Biden.
“Due to the need to maintain operational security, the U.S. Secret Service does not comment on the means, methods or resources to conduct our protective operations,” the Secret Service wrote to The Hill in an email when asked to confirm the report.
This report comes as the investigation into Hunter Biden intensifies.
His work in countries in Europe and Asia, but especially Ukraine, came under scrutiny during the 2020 presidential race and helped set off former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment. Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to find information on Hunter Biden and Joe Biden in a phone call at the center of the controversy.
The U.S. government is looking into whether Hunter Biden violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The White House has expressed confidence Hunter Biden broke no laws.
In recent weeks, major news organizations also confirmed the authenticity of some of the emails found in Hunter Biden’s laptop, from 2009 to 2019, when he acted as a consultant to companies in China and Ukraine. Some of the emails included information about foreign business dealings. The laptop is now in possession of the FBI.
The high costs of protecting first families is not isolated to the Bidens. According to a new report by The Daily Beast, the Secret Service has spent $1.3 million on protection for Trump and his family since they left the White House.
GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate last week signaled they will push the government for more information on Hunter Biden’s doings, signaling a likely line of attack if they retake the House and Senate this fall.