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As Hunter Biden claims he's facing financial trouble amid a federal investigation into his finances and overseas business dealings, the first son has been turning to a Hollywood mega-lawyer and big-time Democratic donor for money and strategic advice.
Kevin Morris, a prominent attorney whose clients include the likes of Chris Rock and Matthew McConaughey, is perhaps best known for brokering a licensing deal for the creators of the animated comedy series "South Park" worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He also won a Tony award as a co-producer of the hit musical "Book of Mormon" and is a fiction writer of two novels and a collection of short stories.
In the political world, Morris has donated significant amounts of money to Democratic candidates and groups, according to public records. Last year, for example, he gave $100,000 to a political action committee supporting Conor Lamb, a Pennsylvania Democrat who lost the Senate primary race to now-Sen. John Fetterman.
Morris, 58, also gave $50,000 to Americans Keeping Country First — a super PAC created to support Republican members of Congress who voted to impeach or convict former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 Capitol breach — and another $50,000 to the American Bridge 21st Century PAC, which conducts opposition research against Republican politicians.
Attorney, author and Democratic donor Kevin Morris attends the book release party for his work "White Man's Problem" on June 3, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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However, now one of Morris' main projects seems to be helping Hunter Biden. By all accounts he's assumed an increasingly big role in the first son's life — to the point that the wealthy lawyer has been dubbed Hunter's "sugar brother." That role has involved a wide range of areas — from financial support, to helping write a book, to lending a private jet.
Indeed, Biden, 53, flew to and from the courthouse for his recent Arkansas child-support hearing aboard a luxury private jet owned by Morris, according to the New York Post, which cited flight and business records.
The 2001 Dassault Falcon 50 — formerly owned by country singer Brad Paisely — is worth $6 million and registered to Plato LLC, for which Morris is reportedly the principal. The jet took off from Los Angeles on April 30 just after 7 a.m., flew cross-country to Washington, D.C. where it landed, and then went to Arkansas for the hearing the next morning. Afterward, the jet left around 11:30 a.m. to return to D.C.
The 7,326-mile round trip likely cost between $55,000 to $117,000, the Post reported, noting the total was the equivalent value of up to six months of Biden's child-support payments.
President Biden's son was in court trying to reduce his child-support obligations to his former mistress, Lunden Alexis Roberts, 32, a one-time stripper and mother of his four-year-old daughter, Navy Joan. President Biden and the first lady have refused to publicly acknowledge the child's existence as their seventh grandchild.
According to Hunter Biden's lawyers, he's been paying $20,000 per month in child support, amounting to $750,000 paid so far. Biden is arguing he can no longer afford the payments and needs them reduced due to what he's described as a "substantial material change" in his financial situation.
Hunter Biden arrives with wife Melissa Cohen Biden prior to President Biden awarding Presidential Medals of Freedom during a ceremony at the White House, July 7, 2022. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
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Roberts' attorney, Clint Lancaster, is skeptical of the idea that Biden can't make the payments, making a motion to have Biden disclose who funds his "stable of American super lawyers."
"Mr. Biden claims to be nothing more than a Yale-educated attorney/artist who is somewhat financially destitute and needs his child support adjusted," Lancaster wrote in a court filing for the recent hearing. "However, for an artist living on meager means, Mr. Biden is living lavishly."
Beyond the child-support hearing, the Post cited flight records showing Morris' plane landing in or taking off from Fayetteville, Ark. at least nine times between February 2022 and April 2023. Fayetteville is the home of Biden's financial adviser, Edward Prewitt.
Morris has helped Biden maintain his allegedly lavish lifestyle, according to several reports covering at least some of the first son's rent and living expenses.
Perhaps most famously, Morris loaned more than $2 million to Biden to help pay off the first son's overdue taxes, which are in part the subject of a years-long Justice Department investigation into possible tax evasion and other potential crimes.
Morris has additionally advised Biden on a host of legal, personal, and financial matters, ranging from his child-support lawsuit to how to respond to ongoing federal probes in his taxes and business affairs. Biden lawyer Chris Clark told CBS News last year that Morris is serving as an "attorney and trusted adviser" to the first son.
Lunden Roberts arrives at the Independence County Courthouse in Batesville, Arkansas, on May 1, 2023. (Mega for Fox News Digital)
Morris has also assisted Biden in selling his artwork. Biden has taken up painting since getting sober and remarrying. Many of his paintings have been priced at and sold for six-figure values, raising concerns among both the Biden administration and ethics experts about the potential of buyers, including foreigners, purchasing the art in order to influence presidential politics. The White House developed guidelines for Biden to sell art without him or anyone in the administration knowing the details.
Meanwhile, emails and business records indicate Morris controls valuable assets of Biden as the first son seeks to renegotiate his child-support payments. Indeed, Biden's stake in a Chinese private equity firm called BHR is now controlled by Morris, the Washington Free Beacon reported earlier this month. Specifically, Morris controls Skaneateles, which holds Biden's 10% stake in BHR.
An amended joint venture contract for BHR Partners first obtained by the nonprofit investigative group Marco Polo identifies Morris as the managing member of Biden's LLC. BHR Partners is co-owned by the Beijing-controlled Bank of China and manages $2.1 billion in assets.
Biden initially invested $420,000 in BHR Partners in October 2017 through his personal company, Skaneateles LLC. His interest in the company spiked to an estimated $894,000, according to a March 2019 email from his former business partner, Eric Schwerin.
Biden's extensive ties to China have been the source of controversy for years and are increasingly coming under scrutiny. Just this week, Fox News Digital reported that he was scheduled to meet with Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma and other Alibaba executives in 2016 as part of a week-long China trip to find potential investors for a movie production venture that Biden and his business partners signed an agreement on. Among the Chinese investors that Biden pursued were multiple Chinese business executives with high-level ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Morris met Biden in December 2019 at a fundraiser for the elder Biden's presidential campaign and, according to the New York Times, "soon developed an almost paternal affection" for the now-first son. Both men lived in Los Angeles and became close as Biden was being scrutinized by then-President Trump and his allies.
Jack Ma, left, and Hunter Biden (Getty Images)
According to campaign finance records, Morris had donated $2,800 to the Biden campaign before meeting Hunter and gave $55,000 to super PACs supporting the campaign and opposing Trump in the months after the meeting — much more than he had given to such groups previously.
Morris' wide-ranging support for Biden comes as the president's son continues to be the subject of federal investigations into his finances and complex web of business dealings abroad by the Justice Department and House Republicans. An IRS whistleblower — Gary Shapley, a 14-year veteran of the agency — had gone public accusing the Justice Department of "slow-walking" its probe into the first son's finances.
It's unclear what the outcome of the investigation will be, but it could have profound political consequences for the president. But whatever happens, it seems likely Morris will be there to advise Hunter.
Amid the ongoing investigations, Morris assisted Biden in finishing his 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things," which chronicled his drug and alcohol addictions. Biden included Morris — who reportedly found a high-powered literary agent for the first son — as part of "the outstanding team behind this book" on the acknowledgments page of his memoir.
Morris has also worked on a documentary project that's expected to build on the memoir's story of redemption while portraying Biden as the victim of attacks from conservatives and Republicans in recent years.
Ironically, the famed lawyer has also been accused separately of posing as a documentarian.
Photo illustration of President Biden and his son Hunter Biden. (Alex Wong/Getty Images | Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images)
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Indeed, Morris allegedly lied to get on to the film set of "My Son Hunter," an independent movie that presents a fictionalized and unflattering account of Biden's drug use and foreign business dealings. According to several reports, Morris flew to Serbia with two colleagues, identified himself by name to the film crew, and said he was making a documentary about Biden's alleged "corruption" without revealing their relationship. Morris and his two colleagues were given full access to the set for several days, taping hours of footage for the supposed documentary.
However, when revelations about Morris' connection to Biden first came to light last year, Phelim McAleer, a producer of the film, called the lawyer's behavior "unethical," adding that "if I had known that he was providing legal and media consult to Hunter Biden, I would have treated him rather differently."
"This was an information gathering exercise by a lawyer and his associates for their client," McAleer said in a press release. "Now that I know of his representation of Hunter Biden, his questions while they were filming suddenly make a lot of sense. I thought he was just making a documentary but now it appears he was deceptively spying for his client Hunter Biden."
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According to the New York Times, Morris, who's been working to undermine Republican attacks against Biden, could use the footage from Serbia for his documentary.
Morris didn't respond to requests for comment for this story.
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