Editors at National Review Online explain why an investigation into dubious activity involving Hunter Biden must include some focus on his father.
In December 2020, once it was clear his father had been elected president, Hunter Biden grudgingly admitted that the Justice Department had advised that he was the subject of a criminal investigation. Biden fils said the probe was limited to his “tax affairs.”
Hunter Biden’s taxes are the least important “affair” the Justice Department should be scrutinizing. For that matter, Hunter Biden is the least important person who should be under the microscope. The major question is whether Hunter is a vehicle by which his father, the now-president of the United States, indirectly cashed in on his political influence.
It’s certainly true that Hunter Biden has major tax problems. His ex-wife acknowledged in divorce proceedings that they owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the IRS, the revenue agency slapped a $112,805.09 lien on the formerly married couple in 2019, and the District of Columbia added a $453,900 lien in July 2020. Kevin Morris, a wealthy Hollywood lawyer and Joe Biden booster, has reportedly extended a $2 million loan to Hunter, in order to pay his back taxes and other debts — obligations he can apparently not yet cover through his latest new career as an artist (or, rather, his newest shady arrangement for huge paydays with no disclosure of where the money comes from and where it goes).
The issue is much bigger than taxes, though. In just the past few weeks, there have been tawdry new revelations about the troubled Hunter’s misadventures with crack cocaine and prostitutes. These include indications that Joe Biden, apparently inadvertently, provided the funds for Hunter’s $30,000 spending spree on “escort” services from November 2018 into March 2019. Joe Biden reportedly provided his son with $100,000 just for the months of December and January.