I saw this on Instapundit, about the Russia collusion hoax, and now the Ukrainegate hoax, which is really a "Hunter Biden is not on the take, and neither is Joe" argument:
I'll tell you what—even if none of Hunter Biden's Chinese, Romanian, or Ukrainian business deals are corrupt, I only discovered recently on the Hunter Biden front that he was a consultant for MBNA when he was 26, and had been the board of Amtrak.
Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware was called "The Senator From MBNA" in the '90's. Byron York wrote an article called "The Senator From MBNA" in the American Spectator, January 1998. That's legitimate—corporate governance provides a lot of Delaware's income, and MBNA is a major employer in Delaware. Furthermore, they were legally and openly a donor to Biden. This was so well known that Biden actually had to issue a denial in 1999, saying "I’m not the senator from MBNA."
MBNA giving the Senator's fresh-out-of-law-school son Hunter a job in 1996 was a bribe.
Matt Yglesias at Vox said
There's no reason to think that Biden backed MBNA's position because his son worked there—senators normally line up with their home state's major employers' policy priorities—it's more like Hunter got the job due to his dad's overall cozy relationship with the company.
Which is a bribe, of course.
Biden is also known as "The Senator From Amtrak" because he's nuts on the subject of trains, riding them between Delaware and D.C. [Biden run could be a boon for Amtrak, by Keith Laing, The Hill, September 7, 2015] As a Senator, he fought to give public money to Amtrak, which is a money-losing boondoggle. That's legitimate. What's not legitimate is Amtrak putting his son on the board in 2006 with unanimous confirmation from the Senate. Amtrak's motivation for wanting him on the board—they're not allowed to lobby Congress, but would have an "effective advocate" in the son of Joe Biden [A Younger Biden Goes the Extra Miles for Amtrak, by Andrew Glass, Politico, February 7, 2007].
Hunter Biden's qualifications for the job: experienced Amtrak passenger ['Hunter Biden has spent a lot of time on Amtrak trains': How senator's son got train board appointment by Joseph Simonson, Washington Examiner, October 21, 2019].
Being on the Amtrak Board of Directors (which is appointed via consultation with people in, for example, the Senate) doesn't actually pay much, but it pays something, and it's Federal money—you know, the kind of Federal money Amtrak Joe was fighting to pour into passenger rail. And Hunter Biden was appointed by a unanimous vote—which includes the vote of then Senator from Delaware Amtrak Joe Biden.
And that's before we get into the whole "foreign agent" thing.
Previous Hunter Biden coverage:
From 2019
From 2014
