Exclusive: Hunter Biden has quietly been in a messy civil case for unpaid alimony to his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, per court docs.
In 2021, the court determined he owed Buhle $1.7+ million
By April 2023, her team said he owed her $2.9 million axios.com/2024/06/01/hun…
Buhle is likely to testify in Hunter Biden's two trials about his addiction and finances
Hunter's myriad legal problems and debts have led his allies to reconsider starting a legal fund for him, despite concerns by Biden aides about the political optics of it.
The divorce agreement called for Hunter to pay Buhle $37k/mo plus 50% of anything he made over $875k annually, per docs filed in D.C. Superior Court and retrieved by Axios.
Hunter didn't pay the additional spousal support he owed in 2017 & 2018, when he earned $2.4m and $2.1m
Hunter's lawyers said he wanted to pay Buhle but no longer had the money after his spiral
In April 2023, Buhle's lawyer argued Hunter had borrowed "millions of dollars to pay federal back taxes and accumulated child support (and attorney fees) in Arkansas"
In the summer of 2020, Hunter's lawyers insinuated that Buhle was blackmailing Hunter with the threat to embarrass Biden's campaign.
"It is likely hoped that there will be some financial intervention, funded by some third-party, to help Mr. Biden with these obligations, in an effort to avoid the anticipated embarrassment to his father's presidential campaign," Hunter's lawyer wrote in July 2020.
"There will be no intervention satisfying Mr. Biden's obligations," she added.
Hunter is facing a cash crunch on other fronts too.
His former lawyer Chris Clark has been paid "virtually nothing" of what's thought to be a multi-million dollar tab, per @GlennThrush @Schwartzesque good story last night nytimes.com/2024/05/31/us/…
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New: Jean-Pierre’s colleagues had thoughts abt her & her book
“one of the most ineffectual and unprepared people I've ever worked with”
“The amount of time that was spent coddling her…was astronomical compared to our attn on actual matters of substance” axios.com/2025/06/05/kar…
Many quietly had fumed for years, believing she was incompetent at her job at the podium and more interested in promoting herself than Joe Biden.
Biden aides largely had stayed silent b/c she was seen as untouchable, given her close relationship w/ FLOTUS aide Anthony Bernal.
Jean-Pierre also caused internal drama by repeatedly blocking National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby from joining her at the White House podium, even when national security issues were at the forefront of the news.
Exclusive: Axios obtained the audio of Robert Hur's 2023 interviews of Biden which show repeated mental lapses as he struggles to remember words & dates amid long, uncomfortable pauses.
Biden WH didn't release it last year. Listen below.
w/ @MarcACaputo axios.com/2025/05/16/bid…
The audio shows what the transcript lacks — Biden's dry-whisper voice and the long silences as he struggles to speak and remember details.
Those often were supplied by his attorneys, who acted as caretakers of his memory.
There is also a clock in the background as a metronome.
Though amiable, the interview became somewhat tense when Biden attorney Bob Bauer chastised prosecutor Krickbaum in this exchange over why Biden had kept a memo about Afghanistan.
"Your answer is that you don't know," Bauer instructed the president.
Listen here.
New: the legal group co-founded by Stephen Miller has continued filing lawsuits and legal complaints—including against the Trump administration—as part of his larger campaign to make DEI programs illegal.
In early Feb, America First Legal petitioned the Education dept to investigate 5 school districts in VA for allegedly not complying with Title IX
Less than 2 weeks later, the Civil Rights office of the dept announced it was opening an investigation into the districts.
Late last month, the group petitioned the Labor Department to investigate whether outside federal contractors were in compliance with Trump's executive order banning federal contractors and subcontractors from "allowing or encouraging ... workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin."
They singled out contractors such as Lyft, Meta, Paramount, Twilio and others.
Operatives in both parties instantly saw it as a flashback to Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables" remark.
The Trump team has already started to fundraise off it, sending out an email with the subject line: "You are not garbage! I love you! You are the best our nation has to offer."
Biden's comments are the latest example of why Kamala Harris' team has been avoiding campaigning with him.
Biden is both unpopular and undisciplined, Harris aides told Axios.
After Slotkin retreats from EV’s in a new ad this week, Harris told people in Michigan yesterday: "Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive.”
Some more context in this piece.
In 2019, Harris backed a plan requiring all automakers to only make EV’s and hydrogen cars by 2035.