<p>If there was any doubt as to the necessity of having former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, called as a witness before the House Intelligence Committee, it should have ended with the testimony of the first day of public hearings.</p>
<p>The only conceivable issue leading to impeachment – and it is a very dubious one, at that – involves President Trump’s motivation for including the Bidens in his request to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to aggressively pursue investigations of corruption on a grand scale.</p>
<p>It has never been just about the Biden activities. Ukraine has been considered one of the most corrupt nations in the world – attested to by George Kent and William Taylor &#8212; the first two witnesses in the Democrats impeachment inquiry.</p>
<p>The issue is very simple. If – as Democrats charge – Trump wanted the overall investigation of Ukrainian corruption to include the Bidens in order to benefit his 2020 campaign, Trump could be accused of self-dealing for political purposes. If – on the other hand – Trump included the Bidens in the overall investigation of corruption because there were legitimate concerns about the role of Hunter Biden’s association with a known corrupt energy company, Burisma, and the known corrupt oligarch, Mykola Zlochevsky &#8212; who hired Biden – then the call for investigation would not only be legitimate, but obligatory.</p>
<p>While Democrats keep talking about Trump’s references to the Bidens in terms of investigating Ukrainian corruption, they fail to note that Trump’s many references to corruption went far beyond the Bidens. They were just one facet of an overall concern. It is easily arguable that Trump was following the United States’ longstanding policy of ferreting out Ukrainian corruption wherever it is found.</p>
<p>Trump’s emphasis also involved PAST actions – nothing related to the 2020 election. That is significant. The fact that Joe Biden is a candidate for president is only coincidental to the purpose of encouraging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to undertake investigations to root out pervasive corruption. That has been a bedrock of American foreign policy for decades – and that is what Zelensky has promised to do.</p>
<p>In order to ascertain Trump’s motivation, it is necessary to better understand the role of Hunter Biden. Was he complicit in the corruption that prevailed for the five years he served on the board of Burisma?</p>
<p>Republicans and Democrats raised the name of Hunter Biden throughout the first day of the hearings. One witness, George Kent, even testified that his concern was so great over Hunter’s role in Burisma that he warned the then Vice President that it created minimally an “appearance” of conflict of interest for Joe Biden – who was assigned to oversee Ukrainian issues by President Obama. He further testified that he did not receive any response to his warning.</p>
<p>The role of Joe Biden now demands investigation since he proudly withheld billions of dollars of much-needed aid to the war-torn nation in order to secure the firing of a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma – and might have been looking into the Hunter role. The fact that he was a corrupt prosecutor who had to go does not change the fact that Pappy Joe derailed an investigation of a company in which his son played a major role.</p>
<p>Under American law, aid may not be sent to foreign nations if there is evidence of pervasive official corruption. Since Zelensky is a new player, it is reasonable and responsible for an American President to get assurances that the new President WILL fulfill his promise of reform – in other words do the necessary investigations. Temporarily holding aid until Trump could gain such assurances from the new Ukrainian President is prudent.</p>
<p>Democrats have made the Bidens central to their claim of abuse of power. At the same time, they refuse to honor a Republican request to subpoena Hunter. Connect this to Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s refusal to allow the Republicans to subpoena the whistleblower and you have a rigged hearing – a Kangaroo Court, so to speak.</p>
<p>As we ponder the Democrats&#8217; refusal to call Hunter, let us remind ourselves of a few facts.</p>
<p>Hunter joined Burisma in 2014 – fresh out of the Navy. He has no experience in Ukrainian affairs. He had no experience in the energy sector – Burisma’ s primary business. He had a troubled past of alcoholism, drug abuse and other messy stuff. He was paid an extraordinary amount of money – between $50 and $80 thousand dollars a month for a part time job that never required he travel to Ukraine. His only activities of record were to arrange a meeting with high-level State Department officials for the corrupt oligarch. Hunter served on the board of Burisma during the last five years of the corrupt administration of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.</p>
<p>Now that all these questions have been officially raised by the Democrats as determinative in the impeachment process, Hunter Biden MUST come and testify. If Chairman Schiff uses his power to thwart such an appearance, he will essentially be guilty of obstructions of justice – guilty of the same thing of which he accuses the Trump White House.</p>
<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>