Hunter Biden's shadow looms over the new US presidency

Joe Biden and his son Hunter on the day of Barack Obama's inauguration in January 2009.Carlos Barria / Reuters

The family is an institution with which you travel your entire life and that, in the case of the next president of the United States, will suddenly have a front row seat when he arrives at the White House on January 20.

And before the start of Joe Biden's term, the scrutiny focuses on his son Hunter, investigated for his business and who was already in the crosshairs of Republicans for his business relations in Ukraine.

Barack Obama left 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue free of scandals, even with two teenage daughters in the spotlight - the most that happened was that Malia, the eldest, was seen smoking what looked like marijuana at a well-known music festival. music-.

This was not the case for other recent presidents.

From the investigation of Jimmy Carter's brother, Billy, for interceding in favor of the Government of Libya, to one of George Bush Sr.'s sons (Neil) for a fraudulent bank loan, ending the pardon that Bill Clinton granted to his brother Roger for a drug case.

The children of Donald Trump have also had accounts with the justice.

When he is sworn in, Joe Biden will walk through the doors of the White House with a large family bag named Hunter Biden and his legal problems.

Unless the U.S. Department of Justice releases his successor's only living male child before then, the new president will be faced with deciding whether his government opens an investigation that could expose his son to a criminal charge.

For now, and despite the fact that the recently resigned Attorney General William Barr has distanced himself from Trump by stating that he saw no reason to appoint a special investigator after the Delaware Attorney General's Office opened a case for Hunter Biden's taxes, in the ranks Republicans call for it to ensure that the issue is kept away from any kind of favoritism.

Hunter Biden's life has been marked by the trajectory of his influential parents.

His personal journey has had in his almost 50 years of life more shadows than lights, more tragedies than joys, starting with the death of his mother in a traffic accident when he was just three years old.

Alcohol, drugs, prostitutes, a failed marriage, his relationship with his brother's widow, Beau, and various rehabilitation centers are in the biography of more than half of his young life.

Fairly or not, he is considered the Biden's black sheep.

He was influenced by being a man overshadowed by his older brother, Beau, called to succeed as his father — something that prevented his premature death in 2015 from cancer.

Hunter has been a headache for the Bidens for years.

Now, his shadow bordering the limits of legality hovers over the new presidency.

To begin with, the past activities of the lawyer,

lobbyist

and businessman have been the target of the accusations of the outgoing president, although the witch hunt that Trump began against Hunter - and by extension against the father - ended up turning against him.

By pretending that an investigation be opened against Biden's son regarding his role in a gas company in Ukraine, Trump ended up pressuring the president of that country, which paved the way for

impeachment

that he eventually overcame in the Senate, of Republican majority.

A forgotten computer

Those darts of the still president were launched at the beginning of the career of the Democratic candidate for the White House, but in the final stretch of the battle the issue rose again as a possible scandal through a tabloid of the magnate Rupert Murdoch that was launched on some Alleged emails found on a computer that Hunter Biden had had repaired and never collected.

The brief electronic correspondence was summed up by

The New York Post

: "A Ukrainian executive thanked Hunter Biden for the opportunity to meet with his vice president father."

Behind that story of Biden's stint as Obama's second was Trump's personal attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has been spreading unsubstantiated allegations against the Bidens for years.

“Everybody has trauma.

In every family there are addictions.

I was lost.

I was in a tunnel, an endless tunnel, from which you never get out, ”Hunter Biden recounted in a profile written by Adam Entous in

The New Yorker

last year.

Hunter confessed all his sins in order to anticipate any controversy and not harm his father when he began his way to the White House.

The investigation into his business in Ukraine yielded no results, but Hunter Biden's name is not going away.

He is currently facing a federal investigation, conducted by the Delaware Attorney General's Office, into his “tax matters”, as he himself stated, in relation to his complicated financial activities, although no conduct has been proven to date. illegal.

Even if Hunter Biden is not found guilty of breaking the law, an investigation will still be a problem for the president.

In the case of Billy Carter, the brother of another Democratic president, the scandals led to four judicial and congressional investigations and a 92-page report from the White House.

If Hunter Biden's troubles go the same way, the Democratic Administration would face a complicated situation, with months of investigations that would distract from the work of the White House and would mean a sword of Damocles on the president.

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