When news of the Hunter Biden laptop broke in 2020, it was originally dismissed as Russian disinformation. Now, it has been presented as official, legitimate evidence in court in Hunter’s federal gun crime trial.
Here are five of the most shocking cases where the laptop was ruled out as illegitimate.
Politico reports on a letter from intelligence officials claiming the laptop was Russian disinformation
Shortly after the New York Post published the Hunter Biden story on October 14, 2020, media outlets were quick to suggest that the laptop in question was part of a complex operation by Russia to impact the US presidential election. Joined.
The media narrative arose in part from an open letter written by 51 former intelligence officials, who stated that the laptop had “all the classic hallmarks of a Russian information operation.”
FLASHBACK: MSNBC, CNN, CBS TOLD VIEWERS HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY WAS RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION
The letter was first reported and circulated by Politico, which ran the headline “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinformation, dozens of former intelligence officials say.” US intelligence officials suggested that emails on the laptop may have been hacked and altered by the Kremlin to incriminate Hunter.
The New York Times and the Washington Post finally verified Hunter Biden’s laptop after Big Tech dismissed the New York Post’s explosive reporting during the 2020 presidential election. The Post’s report was famously censored by Twitter before the 2020 elections. (Getty Images | New York Post)
Among the signatories were former Director of National Intelligence turned CNN analyst James Clapper, former CIA Director turned MSNBC analyst John Brennan, and former CIA Chief of Staff turned MSNBC analyst , Jeremy Bash. Clapper later distanced himself from the letter.
Politico and the former intelligence officials who signed the letter are under renewed scrutiny after the laptop was introduced into evidence this week and confirmed as legitimate by the FBI as part of Hunter’s federal gun crime trial.
When asked for comment, Politico emphasized that its article made clear that claims of possible Russian interference were the opinions of former intelligence officials, not the outlet itself.
Twitter uses the power of Big Tech to block Hunter Biden story and punish the New York Post
When the explosive New York Post report was first published weeks before the 2020 election, Twitter was quick to limit or block sharing of the story in an unprecedented show of coordination. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also admitted that the social media platform was wrong to intervene in the Hunter Biden story.
Twitter, which was renamed X after Elon Musk bought it years later, went to great lengths to prevent the Post story from being shared, claiming it came from “hacked material,” which was false.
The tech giant banned anyone from tweeting the articles or sharing them privately via direct messages. Twitter even locked the Post’s account, telling the outlet that it could only be unlocked if it deleted its tweets promoting its reporting. The Post refused and eventually regained access to its account.
Vijaya Gadde, who was fired from Twitter after Elon Musk acquired the platform, told a congressional committee in February 2023 that she ultimately approved the decision to block the Post’s report on Hunter’s laptop and its contents, but said that the measure should have been reversed more quickly.
’60 Minutes’ Insists Laptop Can’t Be Verified During Trump Interview
In one of the most memorable media conversations about the story, Trump appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes” shortly after the thread surfaced and called the laptop “one of the biggest scandals” he has ever seen. But interviewer Lesley Stahl insisted there was no way to conclude that the laptop or its contents were real.
CNN IS NOT OFFERING AIRTIME TO THE NEW YORK POST’S HUNTER BIDEN REPORT AND ALSO SKIPPING AMY CONEY BARRETT’S HEARING
“Excuse me, they found the laptop. Lesley. Listen,” Trump said, as Stahl repeatedly interjected that the laptop couldn’t be verified.
“What can’t be verified?” -Trump asked.
Veteran CBS News correspondent Lesley Stahl famously said that Hunter Biden’s laptop couldn’t be checked during her “60 Minutes” interview with then-President Trump. (Screenshot/CBS News)
“The laptop!” Stahl exclaimed.
“Why do you say that?” Trump responded, before continuing to argue that the laptop was legitimate.
Stahl also rebuked Trump’s suggestion that Hunter was involved in a “scandal.”
Stahl’s employer, CBS News, confirmed in 2022 through its own forensic investigation that the laptop and its contents were legitimate. The admission led many Trump allies to vilify Stahl, and Hunter Biden’s trial has reignited criticism of the veteran journalist.
NPR calls laptop story a “distraction” and says it doesn’t want to “waste” readers’ time
On the morning of the second presidential debate between then-candidate Joe Biden and then-President Trump, NPR, which until then had ignored the scandal surrounding Hunter’s laptop, offered a quote explaining its editorial standard.
“We don’t want to waste time on stories that aren’t really stories, and we don’t want to waste listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are pure distractions. And, frankly, that’s where we end up. “This was… an event driven politically and we decided to treat it that way,” said NPR editor-in-chief Terence Samuel.
NPR issued a statement in 2020 that it was not going to waste time on the Hunter Biden laptop story, which it said was not real. (Screenshot/NPRPublicEditor/Twitter, Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images)
VIDEO GOES VIRAL OF DEMOCRATS, MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA WHO DOUBT THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP
The comment came in response to an NPR radio listener who couldn’t understand why the story had been ignored.
NPR would later suggest that the laptop was “debunked by U.S. intelligence and independent investigations by news organizations.”
Joe Biden discards his son’s laptop during the debate against Trump
During the final 2020 presidential debate against Trump, Biden said the laptop was a “bunch of junk” that “nobody believes.”
“There are 50 former members of national intelligence who said what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant,” Biden Sr. said of the laptop at the time.
His comments received no opposition from the debate moderator.
The White House had been previously warned by US intelligence agencies before it was learned that Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, was the target of a Russian intelligence operation to provide false information to the then-president. Giuliani had the laptop’s hard drive in his can before it was handed over to the New York Post.
Then-President Donald Trump and then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden participate in their final debate of the 2020 US presidential campaign at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, on October 22, 2020.
Contemporary and current Biden aides Kate Bedingfield, Andrew Bates and Neera Tanden also pushed claims of Russian disinformation based on the letter from intelligence officials.
“The Hunter Biden story is Russian disinformation, say dozens of former intelligence officials,” Jen Psaki, who later served as White House press secretary, wrote in October 2020, which was retweeted by the now director of the Policy Council. National, Susan Rice.
After President Biden took office, several news organizations including CNN, MSNBC, NBC News, CBS News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, and NPR verified the legitimacy of the laptop to some extent.
Fox News reached out to Twitter, Facebook, 60 Minutes and NPR for comment.
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Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn, Brian Flood, Gabriel Hays and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
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