President Joe Biden’s involvement in his family business warrants investigation, Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen wrote, changing his tune on a scandal he previously dismissed as an “irrelevant sideshow.”
Years after Senate Republicans issued the 2020 Senate report detailing the Biden family business, Olsen wrote that he “changed” his mind on the Biden family scandal because of “more than enough evidence.”
“I have long dismissed the Hunter Biden story as an irrelevant sideshow, but recent revelations have changed my mind,” Olson wrote. “There’s more than enough evidence to merit a thorough investigation of President Biden’s involvement in his son’s business dealings.”
Olson said a couple of pieces of evidence changed his mind:
- Devon Archer’s congressional testimony that Joe Biden called into over 20 business meetings, permitting Hunter Biden to sell the “Biden brand” to foreign business associates.
- An email that shows Joe Biden used an alias to receive an email, cc’d to Hunter Biden, about business with Ukraine.
- An email in which Hunter would hold 10 percent for “the big guy.”
We hear a lot these days about the rule of law and the importance of applying it evenhandedly regardless of a person’s political power. That’s correct, of course, which is why Trump’s alleged crimes deserve serious scrutiny even if his indictments are partially motivated by politics. The same logic, though, should apply to Hunter and Joe Biden.
“Mature democracies do not use trumped-up charges to imprison political opponents. But they do follow and apply the law regardless of political consequences,” Olson said. “Only a methodical investigation of the Bidens can conclusively determine which side of that equation their activities fall.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.