Two recent government investigations have hit dead-ends.  First, who leaked the draft opinion of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade?  Apparently, it wasn’t any of the law clerks or administrative support staff.  The investigation stopped there.  Second, somebody left a bag of cocaine near an entrance to the West Wing of the White House.  Apparently there isn’t sufficient video surveillance of the West Wing to determine whom that might have been.  The investigation stopped there.  Journalists seem not to be pursuing the questions on their own. 

            Upton Sinclair once said that “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”  Well, it’s also difficult to investigate something when you don’t want to know the answer. 

            Then there’s the Hunter Biden case.  It seems clear that Republicans are pursuing this case in hopes of besmirching President Biden before the 2024 election.  So what?  That’s how James Madison imagined the Constitution would work: the bad behavior of one side would hold in check the bad behavior of the other side.[1]  That seems to have more-or-less worked for better than 200 years. 

Did Hunter Biden got a “sweetheart deal” because his father is the President of the United States?  According to Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Attorney David Weiss, Hunter Biden got no favors.  Everything was done by the book.  Weiss had a completely free hand.  He could have charged Biden with anything the evidence would support and in any jurisdiction; the plea deal fell within completely normal guidelines for similar cases. 

Not so, say a couple of IRS agents involved in the five-year investigation.  Their statements have been well-aired in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, although the detailed remarks of subject-area experts don’t make for television news sound-bites. 

What does matter is that the statements of the “whistleblowers” were made in public, for the record, and under oath.  The Attorney General has replied with rostrum statements and press releases.  I am reminded of a brief scene in the television series “Dopesick” Dopesick – They cannot be bought – YouTube 

Then there’s the New York Times.  “[I]n mid-2022, Mr. Weiss reached out to the top federal prosecutor in Washington, Matthew Graves, to ask his office to pursue charges and was rebuffed, according to Mr. Shapley’s testimony.  A similar request to prosecutors in the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles, was also rejected, Mr. Shapley testified. A second former I.R.S. official, who has not been identified,[2] told House Republicans the same story. That episode was confirmed independently to The New York Times by a person with knowledge of the situation.”[3]  So which is it?  How do we find out? 

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[1] There doesn’t seem to be any question that Republican politicians are engaged in bad behavior.  Hunter Biden appears to be a psychologically badly wounded human being.  Even if guilty, prison is going to destroy what little is left, not rehabilitate it.  His alleged crimes are as nothing in comparison to those alleged against Donald Trump.  At the same time, I know that I am engaged in bad behavior as well.  I’m not spending this kind of time or thought (such as it is) on the possible destructive impact of prison on some 20-something Black drop-out gang-banger who dealt drugs or shot up a birthday party.  Yet “hath not a Jew eyes?” 

[2] Now known to be Joseph Ziegler. 

[3] Glenn Thrush and Michael Schmidt, “Competing Accounts of Justice Dept.’s Handling of Hunter Biden Case,” NYT, 27 June 2023.