House GOP set to go after Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden, holding son Beau, and his wife, Melissa Cohen, at the lighting of the Christmas tree at the White House in Washington on Nov. 30. Credit: AP/Andrew Harnik
The coming House Republican majority has a right to explore the past actions of Hunter Biden. The adult presidential son traded years ago on the family name for money and patronage and by all reliable accounts, did bad and nasty things with guns and drugs.
Will the sins of this son be visited on the father’s tenure? If so, how? A bona fide investigation could shed light.
Ex-President Donald Trump failed to get the Biden dirt of his dreams. He even sent his lawyer to Ukraine to work a few supposed “witnesses.” Trump ended up impeached, for disloyally diverting U.S. foreign policy in search of a smear.
Now, after winning in the midterms, a newly empowered GOP caucus gets another crack at the old target.
The existence of Hunter Biden’s famous abandoned laptop was well-hyped by the Trump camp in time for the 2020 election. But we have yet to learn the extent of its controversy-soaked contents’ relevance.
Back in October, the Washington Post reported that agents in a long-publicized Justice Department probe had gathered evidence of tax crimes and a false statement on a gun purchase. Official meetings with his lawyers have taken place, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
If we learned anything through the Trump years, it is this: Social media noise is not an investigation, an investigation is not an indictment, an indictment is not a conviction, and shady allies of a president can be pardoned after conviction.
Meanwhile, for perspective: There still is no criminal closure arising from Trump’s obvious encouragement of Jan. 6 violence, or his mysterious removal of secret White House documents, or his phone call to pressure a Georgia official to fix election results in his favor.
As for Hunter Biden, the House GOP caucus has a unique chance to carry out an honest inquiry. That would require breaking from the Benghazi precedent — years of noise aimed at a Democratic secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.
Under Rep. Kevin McCarthy, or whoever else may serve as the new speaker, an appropriate committee can ask straightforward questions about Hunter Biden and evaluate actual evidence, and let the chips fall. Doing so could enlighten the country, not merely advance GOP ambition or “even the score.”
The new Congress could do the public a huge favor by also using its sweeping oversight powers to treat honestly and seriously several other areas of public interest — the southern border, assistance to Ukraine, and public health policy, to name a few the party might consider salient.
Those on the right, or even the left, who are rooting for a double Biden knockout blow may wish to temper their hopes. Probes of pre-incumbency controversies never seemed to roil Trump or Bill Clinton. In this case, however, the vice presidency may serve as a relevant time period.
Where does it all go? We shall see.
Hopefully, the Bidens playing defense won’t be baited into a sneering contempt for the authority of congressional committees to call witnesses and gather documentation. That was the last White House’s approach, and it was politically destructive.
As Walter Shaub, head of the ethics office under President Barack Obama, was quoted as saying last year: “’Less of a grifter than Trump’ cannot become the standard.”
Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
