OPINION:
President Biden has left no doubt that the United States stands behind Ukraine‘s effort to repel an unjust Russian invasion.
Yet increasingly credible allegations suggest another, less seemly explanation for the zeal with which the White House has been executing its policy during the conflict — namely, the appearance of financial entanglements between the Biden family and Ukraine.
Mr. Biden returned last week from Europe, where he championed the NATO alliance, a long-standing bulwark against first Soviet and now Russian aggression. “We’ll defend every inch of NATO territory, and that includes Finland,” he vowed, referring to the alliance’s newest member.
The president stopped short of endorsing NATO inclusion for Ukraine while its war with Russia rages, but he said, “We will continue support to Ukraine, which is defending not only herself but also all the values we represent in the Western world.” Further, he welcomed the day when Kyiv is invited to join the pact, now numbering 31 nations.
In the meantime, Mr. Biden agreed to provide Ukraine with a fresh supply of U.S. munitions consisting of cluster bombs worth $800 million, bringing the total U.S. investment in the Ukrainian war to a pricey $41.3 billion.
While the president’s European sojourn has bolstered Ukraine’s cause in the face of Russia’s invasion, Mr. Biden’s earlier involvement in Ukraine while serving in the Obama administration has engendered creeping skepticism regarding the purity of his motives.
Recently revealed FBI FB-1023 whistleblower documents that FBI Director Christopher Wray had attempted to withhold from Congress reportedly contain charges that then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter each accepted $5 million from a Ukrainian businessman whose name is redacted.
On Thursday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican and member of the House Oversight Committee, alleged that the payer is Mykola Zlochevsky, founder of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The firm hired Hunter in 2014 to serve on its board of directors at a $83,000 monthly salary, and his father used the threat of withholding $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees for Ukraine to force the firing of a prosecutor investigating corruption at Burisma.
Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk then drew an obvious inference in a tweet: “Joe and [his brother] James and Hunter were willing to sell out American interests to keep the Ukrainian money flowing. And now hundreds of billions of your taxpayer money is flowing back to Ukraine.”
To be sure, Americans back the effort to halt Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bloody offensive, with a Gallup Poll in June finding that 62% wanted to see Ukraine reclaim its territory. Support would likely sour, however, were it to be found that self-enrichment on the part of the Biden family is lurking beneath U.S. government actions in Ukraine.
Fairness requires moving beyond innuendo to fact. Americans deserve to know the truth about any overseas business ties that raise even the appearance of impropriety. Only then can suspicions be dispelled of a quid pro quo in which millions the Bidens purportedly received under the table are being redeemed with weapons worth billions and Mr. Biden’s shoulder-to-shoulder support for Ukraine.
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