A New York Times report on the ongoing federal investigation of Hunter Biden vindicated conservative media and was largely ignored by the mainstream and left-wing press.
Summary
The New York Times published a comprehensive report on the ongoing federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings. This report confirmed the bombshell October 2020 New York Post investigation that much of the press and the Joe Biden campaign dismissed as Russian disinformation.
- Per the Times, Hunter Biden took out a loan to pay a significant tax liability that had been under Justice Department investigation last year.
- However, his failure to pay his taxes is just one of several aspects of his business dealings, which have “intersected with his father’s public service” including domestic lobbying and the pursuit of business deals in Asia and Europe, under federal investigation.
- According to the Times, Hunter Biden’s repayment of his taxes makes it more difficult to pursue criminal tax charges, but the probe has widened to include possible criminal violations of tax, foreign lobbying, and money laundering laws.
- The federal probe began as an Obama-era tax inquiry, broadened in 2018 and is now overseen by David C. Weiss, the US Attorney for Delaware.
- Weiss was appointed by former president Donald Trump and was retained by the Biden DOJ to oversee the investigation until it concludes.
- Prosecutors are investigating his ties with Kazakhstan business interests, a Chinese energy company and Ukrainian energy company Burisma and examined emails from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, which has only been acknowledged as authentic and not “Russian disinformation” seventeen months after the original New York Post report.
- White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki dodged questions about the report on Thursday and deflected when asked about her own role spinning the Post story as “Russian disinformation.”
- The New York Times report is worth reading in full.
- CBS News updated its viewers on the latest on the federal investigation into Hunter Biden.
- Politico linked to the New York Times and New York Post articles in a newsletter but made no other mention of the story.
- The Associated Press, Reuters, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, Mother Jones, The Intercept, NPR, Axios, The New Republic, Jacobin, and Slate had not covered the story by time of publication (The first result on Mother Jones has to be seen to be believed).
- The Wall Street Journal wrote that the New York Times’s story is an admission the New York Post was right all along and called the Hunter Biden matter worthy of further examination.
- Fox News’s Jesse Waters called the media coverage of the Hunter Biden saga “nearly the biggest disinformation campaign in American history.”
- At National Review, Charles C. W. Cooke pointed out it ‘sure seems like Joe Biden knowingly lied about the Hunter Biden laptop story” and reminded readers to remember that bold-faced lie the next time “Biden speaks about… well, about anything really.”
Author’s Take
The New York Post is taking a well-deserved victory lap. Today’s Post cover has the blaring headline: “All the news that’s fit to print… once Biden is elected.” The New York Times admitted – in the 24th paragraph – that the Post story was not Russian disinformation after all, seventeen months too late. Twitter locked the New York Post’s account, banned sharing the article and permanently banned users who shared the report, claiming it was “Russian disinformation.” NPR, as was typical of media organizations at the time, called the story “a waste of time.”
Twitter’s move was an unprecedented action days before a presidential election, on a platform that was a hothouse of Russiagate theories (none dare call it disinformation) during the first half of the Trump administration. Where does the Post go to get its apology?
The social media censorship was bad enough, but the Times also confirmed what’s been increasingly clear for some time: Hunter Biden, whether he’s innocent or guilty, is one shady dude. Jim Geraghty at National Review nailed it, calling the Hunter Biden saga “all kind of scandals, all rolled into one” – influence peddling, lobbying, a tragically serious drug problem and messy personal life, shady business dealings, and now selling paintings for five-figures to undisclosed buyers.
Seventeen months later, the New York Times has finally acknowledged that Hunter Biden’s business dealings are worthy of coverage. The Times’ own role in dismissing the original story went unmentioned. Judging by the social media interest in the Hunter Biden saga, the New York Post’s editorial board spoke for many Americans: “you have got to be s—tting us.”
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© Dominic Moore, 2022
