The Secret Service detail protecting Hunter Biden has paid more than $30,000 monthly for almost a year to rent out a Malibu, California mansion, ABC News reported Monday.
With the president's son paying about $20,000 per month to rent a mansion, the Secret Service selected another ritzy property next door, sources told ABC News.
The Secret Service is funded by taxpayer dollars, which in this case pay for the Malibu rent.
Hunter Biden's lifestyle has become of interest to the mainstream media as a federal investigation into his business and tax affairs has intensified.
The New York Post first reported in October 2020 that a laptop Hunter Biden left at a repair shop included emails, text messages, photos, and financial documents between Hunter, his family, and business connections that would indicate the first son was peddling his father's political influence.
Hunter Biden's Malibu mansion includes a four-bedroom, three-bathroom "resort-style" home with an open floor plan, vaulted high ceilings, chef's kitchen, and French doors, according to a description on its property listing, ABC News reported.
The mansion's yard also includes a pool, a spa, a built-in barbecue bar, and alfresco dining, according to the listing.
Secret Service agents live and work next door in a Spanish-style estate with "gorgeous ocean views," according to its listing, ABC News said.
The listing says the security detail's mansion has six bedrooms, six bathrooms, a gym, a tasting room, a built-in barbecue, a pool, and a spa.
"Typically, wherever a protectee sets up their residence, the Secret Service is forced to find someplace to rent nearby at market value," retired senior Secret Service agent Don Mihal told ABC News.
"This isn't new. The Service has had to do this in past administrations, and unfortunately, the housing market right now has driven the prices up substantially."
Mihal added that the Secret Service also was renting properties to protect President Joe Biden's residences in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
"The Secret Service couldn't have a command post in the next town over," Mihal told ABC News. "It'd do them no good."
Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at progressive good-government group Public Citizen, told ABC News that the people being protected by the Secret Service could help lower the cost to taxpayers by reducing unnecessary travel or by sharing their own properties free of charge.
"Hunter should recognize the exorbitant cost of his own protection in the exclusive Malibu neighborhood, and cooperate with the Secret Service to bring down the expenses," Holman told ABC News.
"A cost of $30,000 a month for the Secret Service to rent a home in Malibu next to Hunter is an unconscionable burden to taxpayers, all for the personal benefit of Hunter Biden. Hunter should realize this and accommodate his security detail in his own home."
The cost of protecting a president and his family has drawn attention in the past. Then-Vice President Joe Biden even collected $2,200 a month in payments from the Secret Service when a cottage on his Delaware property was rented out for the agents, ABC News reported.
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