In general, we are not fans of special counsels, which tend to spin out of control and be used as partisan weapons by both sides. There is no getting around the fact, though, that this is a textbook case. By federal regulation, the Justice Department is supposed to appoint an outside prosecutor — one who, though given more independence than ordinary Justice Department lawyers, remains subordinate and accountable to the attorney general and the president — whenever an investigation “would present a conflict of interest for the Department” and such an appointment would be “in the public interest.” Democrats demanded a special-counsel investigation of President Trump even though there was no evidence to support a criminal investigation. Here, Hunter Biden is under an active, well-founded criminal investigation in which charges appear likely.

The Biden Justice Department inevitably has a conflict of interest investigating the president’s son, particularly when President Biden is not only entangled at some level in the unsavory business dealings at issue but continues to claim he has no connection to them. That claim has long been untenable but now insults our intelligence.