Sins of the Father
How Joe Biden is implicated in the Hunter affair.
1.
Hunter Biden landed a position on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma in 2014.1 His annual salary was around $1 million per year, until March 2017, when it was reduced to around $500,000. Co-incidentally (or not) his father had left the vice presidency in January of that year.2
By the time Hunter left Burisma in 2019 his firm earned about $11 million dollars. Burisma was just one of several foreign companies that had paid Hunter Biden, an otherwise middling Yale law-school graduate with zero experience in the oil & gas industry, millions of dollars in essentially no-show jobs in the years his father was Vice-President.
On its face it seems evident why these companies would pay Biden fils ludicrous sums of money for his “expertise”: his immediate connection to the then Vice-President (and now President) of the United States.
In the case of Burisma, it held a special interest in getting close to Biden père since he was charged with handling anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine by the Obama administration. So clearly having Hunter on the payroll would seem like an easy decision on their part.
Of course Joe has denied Hunter or himself were involved in any wrongdoing: that the sole problem with Hunter Biden’s employment by Burisma was the appearance of a conflict of interest.
“There’s nobody that’s indicated there’s a single solitary thing that [Hunter] did that was inappropriate, wrong . . . or anything other than the appearance. It looked bad that he was there”3
But the fact is Hunter Biden traded heavily on his surname and used it to rake in millions of dollars in advisory and consulting fees. And he’s ultimately implicated in several crimes in his financial dealings with foreign companies over the years, not least of which is tax evasion, for which he was recently indicted.4
In a point of irony one can look at former officials in the Trump administration to find out the jeopardy Hunter is in. Take the case of Paul Manafort, who ironically also found himself in trouble for his dealings with Ukraine. Manafort plead guilty in 2018 to money laundering, tax evasion and failing to register as a foreign agent.5 Similarly, Manafort also deceived his tax advisers to avoid paying taxes on his gains and spending the money on a lavish lifestyle. Sound familiar?
The question, of course, is to what extent is Joe implicated? Is he “the big guy”?
2.
It goes without saying that under U.S. federal law it’s illegal to bribe a public official. In 2008 former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty for accepting gifts of home renovations from an oil company executive. The government never alleged that Stevens personally returned the favor, merely that he didn't disclose the full value on his congressional disclosure forms.
It strains credulity that if Joe Biden accepted even $5 of Hunter’s money he wouldn’t be guilty of something similar.
It’s actually very interesting watching Democrats/progressives contort themselves into pretzels over how Hunter’s foreign business dealings: a) are merely a conspiracy theory6 and possible Russian disinformation campaign (Hunter’s incriminating laptop) b) aren’t remotely controversial even if true, c) even if there is a semblance of impropriety in Hunter’s dealings it’s is merely Hunter’s problem (he’s not a public official after all, they’ll yell into your ear) and d) even if Joe is remotely implicated in possible bribery and corruption, Trump did far worse, they’ll tell you.
3.
So the question remains: to what extent is Joe implicated in a possible bribery scandal?
Hunter, by his own admission sold the ‘illusion of access’ to his father. He would often put Joe on speakerphone to impress clients and business associates.7
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/analysis-hunter-bidens-hard-drive-shows-firm-took-11-million-2013-2018-rcna29462
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/08/politics/hunter-biden-charges-what-matters/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-says-he-refuses-to-be-part-of-impeachment-witness-deal/2020/01/22/1d90f50e-3d57-11ea-8872-5df698785a4e_story.html
https://www.justice.gov/sco-weiss/pr/grand-jury-returns-indictment-charging-robert-hunter-biden-three-felony-tax-offenses
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/14/politics/paul-manafort-guilty-plea/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biden–Ukraine_conspiracy_theory
https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-congress-oversight-republicans-devon-archer-4b706443a04e0c40a80c65e24d7d69dc