The Corner

Politics & Policy

Federal Investigation Now a Transition Tradition

The news that Joe Biden’s chronically scandal-plagued son Hunter is under federal tax investigation continues what is becoming a presidential transition tradition. Donald Trump’s transition in 2016–17, of course, was hounded both publicly and privately by the “Russiagate” probe, with BuzzFeed publishing the leaked Steele Dossier and the FBI surveilling Michael Flynn. And Barack Obama’s transition faced both the exposure of Obama’s ally Rod Blagojevich (then governor of Illinois) trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder, and Bill Richardson withdrawing from his appointment as Obama’s secretary of commerce due to a federal grand-jury investigation of pay-to-play practices in his administration in New Mexico (Blagojevich was later convicted, Richardson was not charged). George W. Bush dodged any such scandal in 2000, although in the transition to his second term in 2004 he had his Homeland Security nominee, Bernard Kerik, withdraw after scrutiny of employing an illegal alien as a nanny. Kerik was later convicted of unrelated crimes. (Notably, Trump later pardoned both Flynn and Kerik and commuted the sentence of Blagojevich.)

If you were expecting a scandal-free administration, reset your clocks to 2024.

Recommended

The Latest