It’s getting tough being Joe Biden. Now even some liberals are suggesting that the claims he had direct involvement in Hunter Biden’s schemes needs investigation.
“Democrats often respond to these details with a whataboutism. They point to Donald Trump and his family, who allegedly used Trump’s presidency to enrich themselves. Foreign government officials, for example, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to stay at Trump’s hotel in Washington during his presidency. Democrats also charge that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, secured a $2 billion investment in his private equity firm from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund through ties he forged while serving as Trump’s aide. Even Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, recently said Kushner’s deal ‘crossed the line of ethics,’” Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen writes.
“But none of this negates the need to thoroughly investigate Joe and Hunter Biden. Had Trump and one of his adult children been involved in the same set of facts as the Bidens, the outcry on the left would be deafening.”
Circumstantial Evidence Mounts Against Joe Biden
Multiple pieces of evidence are coming together to paint a circumstantial picture of his involvement.
Former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer testified to Congress last month that Joe Biden participated in at least 20 phone calls with clients. Archer noted that access to Joe Biden was the product being sold. Archer noted that Joe Biden met with Russian and Kazakh oligarchs with ties to the Russian underworld and to the Russian FSB intelligence service in 2014 and in 2015 together with himself and Hunter Biden.
His testimony corroborated public comments by former business partner Tony Bobulinski who made similar comments in the media about Joe Biden’s personal involvement. Bobulinski noted that Joe Biden was the “Big Guy” mentioned in a May 13, 2017 email he was copied on about a deal involving the Chinese military intelligence-backed CEFC China Energy in which the then former vice president was set to get 10% of the proceeds.
“I have heard Joe Biden say he has never discussed his dealings with Hunter. That is false. I have firsthand knowledge about this because I directly dealt with the Biden family, including Joe Biden,” Bobulinski told The New York Post in October 2020.
Bobulinski noted that he first met Joe Biden on May 2, 2017 at the behest of Hunter Biden and then former vice president’s brother Jim Biden before the Global Milken Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif. Their China deal was the topic of discussion.
The FBI FD-1023 form from June 2020 likewise noted that Burisma chief Mykola Zlochevsky referred to Joe Biden as the “Big Guy” while claiming that he had bribed the vice president $5 million to help oust Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
A newly released State Department memo undermines Biden’s long-held claim that he pressured Ukrainian President Poro Poroshenko to fire Shokin because he was corrupt. It gave him a glowing review in the fall of 2015 before Joe Biden’s December 2015 trip to Ukraine during which the then-vice president put the screws to Poroshenko about Shokin.
Fox News host Jesse Watters noted that Hunter Biden hopped on Air Force Two on at least eight occasions while Joe Biden was president and likely conducted business upon landing.
“What does it mean to be in business with someone?” Watters asked. “Well, the dictionary says being in business with someone means you are both engaged in the same business activities or people who are in business together have the same goals, operate in conjunction with each other to achieve those goals and share in the revenue.
Watters continued, “People in business together talk to the same clients, sometimes over the phone, sometimes at business dinners. They also communicate with each other about how they are going to engage in the business, and oftentimes they travel together in order to pursue business opportunities. Well, we all know the Bidens shared the same business interests, a fired prosecutor, greased regulatory approvals, and recommendations to Ivy League colleges.”
Olsen Smells Smoke Around Joe Biden
One would expect Jesse Watters to say something like this but not someone like Olsen.
“Devon Archer, Hunter’s former business partner, recently testified before the House Oversight Committee that Hunter’s value to these firms was his family’s “brand” — his presumed access to the then-vice president,” Olsen said. “That might not have been illegal, and Archer noted that the vice president had not changed policy to help Burisma. But it sure does stink.
Olsen continued, “One could dismiss this as simply another tawdry example of access-peddling. Maybe that’s all it is. But only a complete investigation can ensure that it’s nothing worse … Hunter selling access to his father is disreputable but completely legal. Similarly, Joe Biden participating in meetings that his son asked him to attend would constitute questionable judgment but not illegal conduct. The trouble comes if it moved beyond that to a shared business relationship in which the vice president was an active partner.”
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
