While most in the media were busy yesterday trying to let President Biden off the hook for possessing classified documents after President Trump had his home raided over a similar issue, a few real journalists started asking the big questions, such as how and why classified material found its way to an unsecured office at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy & Global Engagement in the first place.

‘A Reasonable Assumption’ of Undue Chinese Influence

First, what is the Penn Biden Center (for etc. etc.)? Hunter Biden envisioned it as something like the Clinton Global Initiative, “without the money raise.” At least that’s what he wrote to a business associate in April 2016. (We know this thanks to an email on the infamous laptop he abandoned at a Delaware computer shop.) But the big money was going to have to come from somewhere. As John Solomon at Just the News reports, “questions linger” about whether the millions in anonymous Chinese donations to the University of Pennsylvania found their way to this purported think tank.

The university has given a consistent — as in, prepared — response to Just the News whenever asked about this: that “the University has never solicited any funds for the Penn Biden Center” and that no money from China has ever been given to it. However, the Center is operated out of the University’s general fund, accepting no direct donations, and federal records show that massive Chinese donations have gone to the University since the Center’s inception. Even if the bookkeeping is on the up-and-up, it’s easy to see how the Center might indirectly benefit by many, many millions of dollars.

Read the story for details from Paul Kamenar, an attorney for the National Legal & Policy Center, on why undue Chinese influence is “a reasonable assumption.”

And notice that this timely story is from two years ago. People don’t pay attention until they do. It’s time to pay attention to this.

The Washington Free Beacon also reported at that time that “Foreign contributions to the University of Pennsylvania tripled since the Penn Biden Center’s soft opening in March 2017, rising from $31 million in 2016 to over $100 million in 2019.” Wow, it appears to have been just as Hunter Biden said! And the largest foreign contributor was China. What was all that foreign money to the “University” supposed to be for?

Penn Biden is Defending the ‘Liberal International Order’

Tucker Carlson talked about their report Tuesday night, sparking them to tweet about it and link to their original story, which reported that Biden Secretary of State-to-be Antony Blinken was then serving as director of the Penn Biden Center. Cozy. Fascinating reading in light of what’s going on now.

Carlson also pointed out something intriguing on the website for the Penn Biden Center, a subhead called “Addressing Threats to the Liberal International Order.” Whatever that “order” is, they say this:

Throughout his decades of public service, the Center’s namesake, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., has fought to secure American global leadership by defending and advancing a liberal international order…Today, this order is under threat. It is being challenged by authoritarians and extremists and strained by the pace, scope, and disruptive nature of global change. It is in our interest as Americans to defend the liberal international order, even as we work to improve it to better reflect the times in which we live and address the new challenges we face.

So, what is the “Liberal International Order”? Whatever it is, we see that Russia is named as a threat to it, as well as “nationalist leaders who fuel fear and division at home.” (Ah, could they possibly mean MAGA Republicans?) But China is not mentioned.

The University of Pennsylvania and the Bidens — A Symbiotic Relationship

“As far as the University of Pennsylvania goes,” New York Post reporter Miranda Devine told him, “there’s a long, incestuous, symbiotic relationship with the Bidens. Joe Biden got his grandchildren in there. He got the children of friends in there. He treated it as his own little playpen.” One thing we didn’t know: when he stepped down as Vice President, the University paid him almost $1 million when he put his name on “that supposed think tank.” She speculated it was his name that attracted a lot of Chinese money to the school.

The Post reported the details on all that Chinese money and the suspicious timing of much of it. Ivy League schools in general seem to be on a quest to see who can rake in the most Chinese donations.

Tucker also related a previously unknown (to us) story about communications between a University of Pennsylvania professor and Hunter’s daughter Naomi:

I’m writing to you tonight to invite you to take part in a major conference in China at the end of March. I’ve been asked (due to my own personal quanxi) to help recruit a prominent young leader. They will fly you [to Beijing] business class and of course provide all your accommodations…I don’t think it would surprise you that they are interested in you thanks to your family name. I would not take offense to that. It is truly the Chinese way (and frankly, better you than that dolt Tiffany Trump). If you are interested… etc.

She was to expect an invitation from the head of the conference.

Who is this professor, and why is he the intermediary for such an arrangement? And why the gratuitous slap at Tiffany Trump, when it’s the Bidens who aren’t looking very good here? (By the way, emails show that when Naomi told dad Hunter about the offer, he advised her to “go for it” and even to ask for a second invitation for her boyfriend.)

Strategically Hiding Information — Until After Elections

Just the News looked at the timeline for Trump’s classified-documents problem and Biden’s classified-documents problem and found something very interesting. On November 2, two weeks before Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a special counsel to investigate Trump’s possession of such documents, Biden’s attorneys had disclosed to government lawyers that they’d discovered “sensitive documents with classified markings” in Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center. So Garland knew about it — six days before the midterm election. Of course, this is one more thing voters were never told about before an election.

Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch said, “The Biden operation hid from the American people the discovery of classified records in VP Biden’s office just before November elections. Will there now be a raid on Biden’s home?”

I’m thinking right now that the greatest threat to “our democracy” is the fact that some of the most pertinent information voters want and deserve to know is strategically hidden from them until after elections. And this is being done to us by the very people who claim we’re the threat.

In fact, that’s one of the questions Solomon has: “Did the government delay notifying the public for political or other purposes, such as sparing Biden from criticism or to keep voters in the dark before Election Day?” We assume that question is rhetorical. Solomon also wonders whether the Chinese had access to the classified material kept at the Penn Biden Center. I don’t think it matters much that Biden’s attorneys were cooperative after the classified documents were found. If you think Chinese spies had not seen every scrap of paper in that office, which was essentially funded with Chinese money and within walking distance of Capitol Hill, you flunk this class.

Bonchie at RedState explains clearly why those who are spinning so hard to say Trump endangered national security but Biden’s “little accident” is “no big deal” are making themselves look ridiculous.

Finally, Jesse Watters had an excellent opening segment about this story Tuesday night, making all the right points and asking all the right questions. Highly recommended.

RELATED: Attorney and Freedom of Information Act expert Kevin Evans of Colorado, who is suing the “Justice” Department to get records concerning the foreign business dealings of Hunter and James Biden, had his hearing on Monday. In a status report he gave the court, he said, “Plaintiffs submit that there is a significant public interest in such records: e.g., concerns regarding national security, influence peddling, and whether such favors and gifts were provided in exchange for an illicit quid pro quo.”

Evans argued for “limited discovery,” including asking the DOJ to answer a list of specific questions. The DOJ wants to proceed to summary judgment without discovery — no surprise there. Discovery is what they do not want. As of early Wednesday morning, no word yet from the judge.

Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas and longtime conservative commentator on issues in culture and current events. A New York Times best-selling author, he hosts the weekly talk show Huckabee on TBN.

Originally published at MikeHuckabee.com. Reprinted with permission.