Former President Donald J. Trump has been among the many most insistent of Republican voices in search of to make use of Hunter Biden as a approach to discredit his father, President Biden — and the responsible plea on Tuesday rapidly turned one more level of assault as Mr. Trump seeks the Republican presidential nomination for a 3rd time.

But for Mr. Trump and his allies, decrying Hunter Biden has lengthy served as a political applause line — most notably throughout the 2020 race.

It was within the run-up to that marketing campaign that Mr. Trump was first impeached, in 2019, for abuse of energy and obstruction of Congress — fees that stemmed from a phone call Mr. Trump made to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, throughout which he pressed Mr. Zelensky to analyze main Democrats and to open an inquiry into Hunter Biden.

Mr. Trump repeatedly circulated unsubstantiated claims in efforts to hyperlink his Democratic rival to his son’s enterprise dealings, which he painted as corrupt, even earlier than Mr. Biden turned his celebration’s nominee.

In 2019, Mr. Trump publicly referred to as for China to look at Hunter Biden’s monetary dealings within the nation. Mr. Trump claimed, with out proof, that Hunter Biden “made millions of dollars from China” and that he used his political connections to influence China to take a position $1.5 billion in a fund he was concerned in.

At marketing campaign rallies, Mr. Trump frequently levied claims that Hunter Biden was corrupt, usually pointing to a New York Post report a couple of laptop that was seized by the F.B.I.

And throughout a presidential debate in October 2020, Mr. Trump repeatedly urged, with out proof, that Mr. Biden had each served as a marketing consultant and used his former place as vice chairman to assist safe enterprise offers for his son. That collection of assaults drew additional public scrutiny to Mr. Biden’s son’s actions, as searches for “Hunter Biden” skyrocketed following the exchanges throughout the debate.

Mr. Trump later referred to as for his legal professional normal, William P. Barr, to take motion in opposition to his Democratic challenger for his son’s work, simply two weeks earlier than the 2020 election.

Now, with Mr. Trump newly arraigned on federal charges over his dealing with of labeled paperwork, he and lots of Republicans have sought to solid Hunter Biden’s settlement with federal prosecutors as overly lenient and sought to ascertain a double-standard narrative.

Mr. Trump likened Hunter Biden’s fees to that of a “traffic ticket,” in a put up on his Truth Social web site shortly after the responsible plea was introduced on Tuesday.