A CAREFULLY CULTIVATED IGNORANCE:

As it turns out, the secret meeting at Cafe Milano wasn't the clandestine scandal that the New York Post made it out to be.

At the time of the meeting, Hunter Biden was the chair of the World Food Program, a fundraising arm of a humanitarian effort in the United Nations. Rick Leach was the president at the time and he explained that the now-president dropped by the meeting briefly to see Alex Karloutsos, who was known as Father Alex during his service as a leader in the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States. Biden had just spoken at the White House Greek Independent Day Reception, his official schedule read.

"He and Karloutsos are personal friends who have known each other for 40 years," the Washington Post explained. "Karloutsos's wife, Xanthi, is on the board of the Beau Biden Foundation, which fights child abuse. (Beau Biden, who had an aggressive form of brain cancer, died a few weeks after this dinner.)"

Biden is a Roman Catholic and has worked with the Greek Orthodox Church throughout his life, earning the Patriarch Athenagoras Humanitarian Award in 2015.

Joe Biden "didn't even sit down. He was not part of the dinner or part of the dinner discussion," said Leach.

Karloutsos confirmed the account, saying, "That is true. It was very kind of the then VP to do so."

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