When accused of a crime or indicted in this country, everyone is presumed innocent before being proven guilty by a jury of one’s peers. Hunter Biden is no exception. But evidence has emerged as of late to suggest that federal investigations into the taxes of the president’s son may be being mishandled by the administration. New evidence also suggests the Biden campaign interfered to kill the younger Biden’s laptop story.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a criminal supervisory special agent at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is requesting whistleblower protections to present evidence to the former. According to a letter sent by the currently anonymous IRS agent, they claim to have evidence of “preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected”. 

CBS News reports that the case the agent is referring to is an investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances by the Department of Justice. The FBI collected what it believes to be significant evidence to charge Biden with tax crimes and false statements when making a gun purchase. After sending that evidence to the U.S. District Attorney in Delaware in 2022, nothing about the case has been publicly disclosed since. 

To be clear, that does not insinuate that Hunter Biden is guilty, only that they believe they have enough evidence for him to be charged. It’s still too early to tell what the agent could say, but if the Biden administration really is trying to bury an investigation into the president’s son, it should give Americans pause as to if he really is the right choice for 2024. Such behavior would be disqualifying. 

On the topic of campaigns, evidence has surfaced from the Republican-led House Committee on the Judiciary and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that suggests former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell was contacted by the Biden team regarding the New York Post’s story on Hunter Biden’s laptop. 

Though many unfairly pounced on sensitive details of Hunter’s life such as his struggle with addiction and the loss of his mother and brother, emails from the laptop lend credence to claims that the younger Biden used his father’s role as Vice President to secure foreign business deals in Ukraine and China. 

Some may argue that the Post might not be a reliable source given its conservative slant, but the contents have been confirmed by  independent experts and outlets with a more liberal audience such as CBS and the New York Times. This is not like Trump’s lies about “rigged voting machines”.

Five days after the Post released the story, 51 senior intelligence officials signed a letter saying that the story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Interviewed under oath by the committees, Morell said that he did not have intent to write the statement before being contacted by Antony Blinken, currently Secretary of State but a member of Biden’s campaign. 

Morell further explained that Blinken triggered the intent. He also admits that he was instructed by the campaign to send the letter to a particular Washington Post reporter and then thanked for his efforts. 

Perhaps the most damning part is his admission to Chairman Jim Jordan that he put out the letter to warn the American people about concern of Russian collusion, but also because he wanted to help Biden “because I wanted him to win the election”. 

Judiciary Democrats have fired back by claiming that Republicans have cherry picked Morell’s testimony by issuing a miniature press release. Irony is a bit of a new concept for them. In the release, Democrats make no direct rebuttals of what Morell said, rather point to a line that shows Blinken did not explicitly tell Morell to draft the letter rather he wanted Morell’s opinion on the Post story.

It is worth noting that Morell was a private citizen at the time and so was Blinken. But given that the contents of the laptop have been independently verified and that Morell openly admits wanting to help Biden, Democrats’ claims fall flat.

The real questions should be, where did the Russian narrative come from? Why did so many former intelligence officials sign on? Are we really a democracy if misinformation plays such a crucial role in our elections? 

Let’s set our feelings about Biden and Trump aside for a moment and demand full transparency from our government and the candidates who run to represent us.