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In a July 25 phone call to the president of Ukraine, President Donald Trump was 鈥減ressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the president鈥檚 main domestic political聽rivals,鈥� specifically 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, according to an official whistleblower complaint. A pdf of the complaint is available here. The president鈥檚 personal lawyer has met with Ukrainian officials multiple times seeking information about Hunter Biden鈥檚 activities in Ukraine. Here鈥檚 a look at the legal and ethical claims leveled at the Bidens.

1. What was Hunter Biden doing in Ukraine?

In April 2014, Hunter Biden joined the board of directors of Burisma Holdings, the largest natural gas producer in Ukraine. At the time Burisma was whitewashing its image, say anti-corruption activists, by inviting high-profile Americans and Europeans to join the board. The former president of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, had recently been added to the board, as had one of Hunter鈥檚 investment company partners, Devon Archer.聽

Hunter Biden had no previous experience in the natural gas industry, Ukraine, or regulatory oversight, as his title at Burisma suggested.聽

鈥溌爉ade Burisma, [which] got licenses to extract gas in Ukraine through very suspicious means, look like a Western, legitimate company,鈥� Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, a nongovernmental organization in Ukraine, told The Washington Post.聽

Burisma was founded by a former minister of ecology and natural resources, Mykola Zlochevsky. Two months prior to Hunter Biden joining Burisma, U.K. authorities opened a money-laundering investigation and froze $23 million in company funds. But by 2015 the money was released (for lack of evidence) and by 2017, all legal proceedings against the company and Mr. Zlochevsky had been closed.聽

鈥淔rom the perspective of Ukrainian legislation,聽,鈥� Yuri Lutsenko, the former prosecutor general of Ukraine, told The Washington Post recently. 鈥淗unter Biden cannot be responsible for violations of the management of Burisma that took place two years before his arrival.鈥澛�

Mr. Lutsenko also told the Los Angeles Times on Saturday that聽and spoken with him numerous times by phone, but had rebuffed Mr. Giuliani鈥檚 efforts to get him to launch an investigation into Hunter Biden.聽聽

Ukraine鈥檚 current top prosecutor hasn鈥檛 launched an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden or his son. 鈥淎s of now, there is nothing there,鈥� Nazar Kholodnitskiy, the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor鈥檚 Office, said in an interview with NV radio.

2. Why did Joe Biden push to remove a prosecutor in Ukraine?

In short, corruption. But not the kind that President Trump has alleged.聽

Joe Biden was the Obama administration鈥檚 point person on relations with Kyiv. In 2015, Joe Biden, along with the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, the European Union, and the International Monetary Fund,聽. But that was not because Mr. Shokin was investigating Burisma, as Mr. Giuliani has said,聽, Ms. Kaleniuk, the Ukraine anticorruption investigator, told the Daily Beast.

During a visit in 2016, Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees unless Mr. Shokin was fired. 鈥淚 looked at them and said: 鈥業鈥檓 leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you鈥檙e not getting the money,鈥欌�� Joe Biden聽聽at the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Shokin was fired. The move was praised in Europe as a step toward tackling corruption.

But Mr. Shokin told The Washington Post earlier this year that聽. He also questioned Hunter Biden鈥檚 qualifications to be a Burisma board member, noting that 鈥渢his person had no work experience in Ukraine or in the energy sector.鈥澛�

3. If Hunter Biden鈥檚 role wasn鈥檛 illegal, was it ethical?聽

It was not ethical, according to Sarah Chayes, author of 鈥淭hieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security.鈥� In an Atlantic opinion piece, she suggests that Burisma was using the Biden name to scrub its reputation and Hunter Biden was cashing in. She sees the Ukraine case as an example of a global culture of U.S. 鈥渃onsultants鈥� 鈥� including former Obama and Bush officials 鈥� , by 鈥渢rading on their connections and their access to insider policy information 鈥� usually by providing services to kleptocrats...,鈥� she writes. 鈥淗ow did dealing in influence to burnish the fortunes of repugnant world leaders for large payoffs become a business model? How could America鈥檚 leading lights convince themselves 鈥� and us 鈥� that this is acceptable?鈥�

But unless there鈥檚 evidence that Hunter Biden was hired only to whitewash Burisma鈥檚 reputation, 鈥渋s it morally appropriate to give the worst possible interpretation? That鈥檚 not fair or ethical,鈥� says Michael Davis, senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. But he adds, 鈥淚f it is true, then they鈥檙e doing something that鈥檚 not moral: trying to deceive people.鈥�

As for Hunter Biden using his surname for profit, Professor Davis says, 鈥渢here鈥檚 nothing immoral about trading on your name, unless you鈥檙e a government official. If you have a famous brother, it may help you sell shoes. I don鈥檛 see anything wrong with that.鈥�