The idea that there was any barrier between the Biden political business and the family business never withstood even the most elementary forms of scrutiny. And why would it? This is SOP in Washington D.C.

While Joe Biden maintained the barest minimum in plausible deniability by meeting his son and brother’s foreign business partners without actually talking business with them, those in his political orbit went into the Biden family business orbit.

Even including the head of his Secret Service detail.

In one instance, Jim Biden testified that he hired the former head of his brother’s Secret Service detail, Dale Pupillo, to investigate a Chinese executive that Hunter Biden was doing business with in 2017.

Jim Biden said during his February impeachment inquiry interview that he commissioned Pupillo in advance of accompanying Hunter Biden to Hong Kong so that his nephew could meet with the executive, Patrick Ho.

Despite hiring a private investigator and traveling halfway around the world for the meeting, Jim Biden said he never asked Hunter Biden what Ho — then on the cusp of being arrested, and later convicted, on federal corruption charges — and his nephew were meeting about. He said the decision not to inquire about the meeting came down to a desire to quarantine his affairs from those of his nephew’s.

“That may be hard for you to believe,” he told an incredulous Republican staffer. “But that’s the way we operate in my family.”

If ever a laugh track were needed.

Now why hire a former Secret Service protection detail guy to investigate a Chinese businessman? That’s not exactly in his wheelhouse?

The hiring of Pupillo and the purpose of the Hong Kong meeting was subjected to extended scrutiny in Jim Biden’s congressional interview.

A Republican staffer voiced a suspicion that the real reason Pupillo was hired was to provide intelligence about the Justice Department’s probe that could then be communicated to Ho face-to-face.

“Was this person used to investigate Patrick Ho to try and identify whether or not there was a federal investigation before you and Hunter Biden went out to go visit Patrick Ho so that you could inform Patrick Ho if there was an indictment or a federal investigation, maybe, that was under seal?” the staffer asked.

“Absolutely not,” Jim Biden responded. “This was for my personal edification, because I do not like to walk into blind buildings, okay?”

Jim Biden also volunteered his belief that Pupillo did not exploit any access to sensitive sources in his investigation. “He didn’t use any special, you know, relationships,” Jim Biden testified. “To the best of my knowledge, he was a very ethical guy.”

To. The. Best. Of. My Knowledge.

And in the insane Americore deal, Jim Biden was repped by Joe Biden’s lawyer.

His current firm, Monzack, Mersky and Browder, serves as the registered agent of Joe Biden’s personal S Corporation, CelticCapri, which was formed in 2017, according to Delaware corporate records. Biden has routed income from activities including writing and speaking through CelticCapri, according to his personal financial disclosures.

A June 2018 email shows that Monzack helped negotiate a proposed deal that would have given Jim Biden’s company 35 percent of Americore.

In the email, part of a cache of internal Americore documents obtained exclusively by POLITICO, Monzack wrote to Americore’s outside counsel, “We represent Jim Biden and Lion Hall Group,” and requested a half-dozen changes to the proposed deal.

The Americore story, which I reported on before the election, may be the single craziest Biden scandal that no one is talking about.

The Americore pitch sought $30 million to buy up hospitals and named Jim as the “Brother and Campaign Finance Chair of former Vice President Joe Biden.” Internal documents showed that this resulted in a meeting with a Qatari “minister”. While the Qataris had plenty of money to burn, getting it to America involved conspiracies more often associated with drug dealers.

A “former executive recalled discussion at one point of trying to move money across a Middle Eastern border in the form of gold bars”.

The next stage of the plan involved James Biden becoming the “chief global banking emissary” for Billerfy which processed payments for a cryptocurrency exchange known as Quadriga that traded money for crypto. Later that year, Billerfy’s accounts were frozen and millions were found in a personal account. Six days later, Quadriga’s 30-year-old CEO suddenly died in India, locking up $70 million in cash and $191 million in crypto. Another co-founder, Michael Patry, whose real name turned out to be Omar was raided and authorities discovered gold bars in a vault. The whole operation was then exposed as a massive ponzi scheme.

Desperate for cash, James Biden traveled to Qatar with the aim of personally presenting to Qatari Finance Minister Ali Sharif Al Emadi who was later arrested and charged with bribery and laundering over $5 billion and sentenced to 20 years in prison. While little is known about the details behind the internal power struggle in the corrupt terror state, Al Emadi had been accused of “channeling Qatari support to various Islamist groups over the years” as well as subverting American and European institutions with sizable infusions of Qatari money.

As the American end of the deal fell apart in recriminations and lawsuits, one of the litigants received “blood-stained currency” and a “torture ticket” after suing James Biden and his partners. The blood money came from a Middle Eastern country known to be associated with terrorists. But the FBI refused to name the country and insisted the media also hide its identity.

And Joe Biden’s lawyer represented James Biden in the deal.