It Looks Like, For Some Reason, The Word Has Gone Out

There's a lot of new opinion across the spectrum that something's changed. For instance, at CNN:

A top legal analyst at CNN said it is possible President Biden’s son Hunter Biden could be indicted by the U.S. government following an investigation into his foreign business dealings.

“This is a very real, very substantial investigation of potentially serious federal crimes,” Elie Honig said Wednesday morning on the network. “We are seeing federal prosecutors in Delaware do exactly what you would expect to see federal prosecutors do in this situation.”

Honig said it appears the investigation into Hunter Biden’s business overseas is “gaining steam.”

Another take on CNN's report suggests there are questions about an issue that caught my eye more than a week ago:

WATCH: Even CNN confirms that Hunter Biden is under investigation for “money transfers,” “business activities in China,” “Burisma,” and the "source" of the funds he used to pay his tax bills. pic.twitter.com/5EqrYJhnqE

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 30, 2022

As I asked back then, if Hunter is broke, how did he manage to pay a million-dollar tax bill? The CNN story continues,

There is a realistic chance this could result in federal charges,” Honig said. “Of course, then we’d be in unprecedented political territory — not legal territory but a situation of having potentially the Department of Justice prosecuting and trying to imprison the son of the president.”

But what isn't mentioned is the potential exposure, both legal and political, of the Biden family's commingled finances. It's been generally acknowledged that Hunter and Joe have paid each other's bills for one thing or another all along. Tax problems for Hunter are almost certainly tax problems for Joe, his brother, and other members of the family.

Another issue that nobody's mentioned is the question of Hunter's relationship with the Secret Service, which continued in the four-year interregnum between the end of Joe's term as vice president and his inauguration as president, when neither Joe nor Hunter had Secret Service protection. The Washington Examiner reported last year,

A former U.S. Secret Service agent went to check on Hunter Biden in 2018, when the future president’s son was holed up in a Los Angeles hotel room. The agent became alarmed about, and frustrated with, Hunter Biden, text messages obtained by the Washington Examiner  show.

“As your friend we need to resolve this in the immediate. Call the front desk now H or I will have to assume you are in danger and we will have to make them give us keys,” texted the former agent in the May 24, 2018 incident.

. . . At the time of the hotel incident, Hunter Biden was living in Los Angeles. His father, current President Joe Biden, was the former vice president and neither he nor his son had Secret Service protection. At 6:37 p.m., the following text exchange occurred between Hunter and the former agent, invoking the code name “Celtic,” which was and remains Joe Biden’s Secret Service handle:

Former agent: "H- I’m in the lobby, come down. Thanks..."

Biden: "5 minutes."

Former agent: "Come on H this is linked to Celtic’s account. DC is calling me every 10. Let me up or come down. I can’t help if you don’t let me. H."

There was another, similar incident that year:

On Oct. 23, 2018, President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and daughter in law Hallie were involved in a bizarre incident in which Hallie took Hunter’s gun and threw it in a trash can behind a grocery store, only to return later to find it gone.

Delaware police began investigating, concerned that the trash can was across from a high school and that the missing gun could be used in a crime, according to law enforcement officials and a copy of the police report obtained by POLITICO.

But a curious thing happened at the time: Secret Service agents approached the owner of the store where Hunter bought the gun and asked to take the paperwork involving the sale, according to two people, one of whom has firsthand knowledge of the episode and the other was briefed by a Secret Service agent after the fact.

The gun store owner refused to supply the paperwork, suspecting that the Secret Service officers wanted to hide Hunter’s ownership of the missing gun in case it were to be involved in a crime, the two people said. The owner, Ron Palmieri, later turned over the papers to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which oversees federal gun laws.

The Secret Service says it has no record of its agents investigating the incident, and Joe Biden, who was not under protection at the time, said through a spokesperson he has no knowledge of any Secret Service involvement.

. . . the alleged involvement of the Secret Service remains a mystery. One law enforcement official said that at the time of the incident, individual Secret Service agents at the agency’s offices in Wilmington, Del., and Philadelphia kept an informal hand in maintaining the former vice president’s security. The person cited an instance in 2019 when the Wilmington office of the Secret Service called the Delaware State Police to arrange security for a public appearance by Biden.

The exact relationship between Joe, Hunter, and other members of the Biden family with the Secret Service, especially during years in which they were not protectees, is a question that needs investigation. Acccording to the Epoch Times,

The U.S. Secret Service (USSS) says it cannot locate years of records on communications regarding agents guarding Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.

Hunter Biden was a Secret Service protectee from Jan. 29, 2009, to July 8, 2014, and traveled extensively during that time, including to Russia, China, and India, a congressional investigation found.

As part of the probe, which is ongoing, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) have sought records from the Secret Service in their roles as the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Secret Service provided some 261 heavily redacted pages (pdf) concerning the travel but did not provide any records from 2010, 2011, or 2013.

But someone also should be asking questions about 2018, and indeed, what services the Secret Service is now providing for Hunter, who has adopted a new, very low public profile, at Joe's behest. This man is an addict. Does Hunter now have permanent 24/7 minders? What do the minders do for him to keep him happy but out of trouble?