In all the exciting weeks since Joe Biden was put out to pasture in the presidency, the news that Hunter Biden now stands accused of something ominously similar to the thing that got the scandal ball rolling appears to be of little interest to most.

Even as President Biden shuffles toward the White House exits, it’s worth watching the September tax trial of his son Hunter. In a court filing Wednesday, amid pretrial disputes, special counsel David Weiss provided a useful narrative of Hunter’s alleged business dealings with a Romanian identified as G.P., who was facing a bribery investigation back home.

The feds say that he sought Hunter’s services “to attempt to influence U.S. government agencies to investigate the Romanian criminal investigation of G.P., and thereby cause an end to the investigation of G.P.” Apparently to that end, the filing continues, “the defendant and his business partners did reach out to government officials, specifically the United States Department of State.”

Hunter received roughly $1 million, the filing explains. “Concerned that lobbying work might cause political ramifications for the defendant’s father,” Hunter and his associates routed the funds through an entity that “would purportedly provide management services to real estate properties in Romania.” This arrangement “concealed the true nature of the work he was performing for G.P.”

I’m sure there would be more interest in this if Biden were still running, but there are two important takeaways from the accusations here.

1. Hunter and his people routed a foreign payment to influence U.S. policy through a shell company. This was what investigators had been alleging for some time only to be mocked by the media.
2. Hunter is being accused of taking money to shut down a criminal investigation of an Eastern European businessman by investigating the investigators.

Sound familiar?

Let’s back up that truck to Burisma. And the story that in many ways got the ball rolling.

Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin told Fox News in an exclusive sit-down interview that he was fired during the Obama administration for investigating Burisma, the energy firm whose board Hunter Biden served on.

During the interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade – set to air Saturday at 8 p.m. – Shokin said it is his “firm personal conviction” that he was fired because then-Vice President Biden and Hunter were bribed. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ousted Shokin in 2016 – he was hired a year prior – due to Shokin’s alleged corruption and pressure from the U.S. government led by Biden.

“I have said repeatedly in my previous interviews that Poroshenko fired me at the insistence of the then Vice President Biden because I was investigating Burisma,” Shokin said in the interview.

“[Poroshenko] understood and so did Vice President Biden, that had I continued to oversee the Burisma investigation, we would have found the facts about the corrupt activities that they were engaging in. That included both Hunter Biden and Devon Archer and others.”

One year after leaving the White House, Biden boasted about how he personally put pressure on Poroshenko to fire Shokin. He explained that he told Ukrainian officials the U.S. would withhold up to $1 billion in aid money earmarked for their country if Shokin remained in his position.

“I said, ‘Nah, I’m not going to – we’re not going to give you the billion dollars.’ They said, ‘You have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said –.’ I said, ‘Call him.’” Biden remarked during a January 2018 event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. “I said, ‘I’m telling you, you’re not getting the $1 billion.’”

“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here,'” Biden continued. “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”

Did it play out in Ukraine the way it allegedly played out in Romania? And did the case have any bearing on Biden dropping out?