When James Comer wondered on CNN whether Special Counsel David Weiss had indicted Hunter Biden on nine tax-related charges to protect him from having to be deposed in the House Oversight Committee, Jake Tapper snarkily responded: “Yes, the classic rubric. He indicted him to protect him. I got it.”

Well, yes. Indicting a person on lesser charges can often protect him from more serious ones. It happens all the time. In this case, though, “him” isn’t Hunter, it’s Joe.

Weiss failed to indict Hunter for failing to register as a foreign agent or failing to pay taxes on the millions that flowed from those arrangements. Why? Probably because any investigation into Hunter’s $17 million foreign influence-peddling business — which Weiss has scrupulously avoided — leads to the president of the United States answering lots of awkward queries about his connection to disreputable people and authoritarian regimes. There is no Hunter Biden case without Joe. There is no Biden Inc. without Joe.

[That was certainly the intent of the original plea deal. Its immunity clause, which was nearly infinite in both time and scope, was specifically intended to keep future prosecutors from gaining leverage on Biden Inc through Hunter’s crimes. This indictment is a significant improvement, but the decision not to pursue FARA violations is very curious, given the DoJ’s attempts to enforce it against defendants with few if any connections to the governing elite. — Ed]