This was in The Wall Street Journal:
"Text messages and emails related to the venture that were provided to the Journal by Mr. Bobulinski, mainly from the spring and summer of 2017, don't show either Hunter Biden or James Biden discussing a role for Joe Biden in the venture.
Even if Bobulinski is telling the truth, that Joe Biden knew about the China enterprise, it's not clear what the scandal is - he was a private citizen at the time and not running for president. Trump has elevated an unsubstantiated assertion that Biden had knowledge about his son's legal and failed business venture to a "crime" for which he "should be put in jail." To put in context how absurd this allegation is, one of the first things George W. Bush did after he left the White House was deliver a paid speech in China. Somehow he remains at large."
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Basically, there is nothing to this story which points to a crime having been committed by Joe Biden. You are correct that the point being glossed over by right wing media at the moment, and which needs to be emphasized, is that Biden was a private citizen while this business venture of Hunter's was taking place. Joe Biden had not even announced his intention to run for president in 2020 yet.