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Journalism – Hunter Biden’s Laptop and the FBI 2019-2020:

28 December 2024 By in History, Journalism, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In October 2020, a few weeks before the election, the New York Post reported on the existence and contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Media sources other than the Post did not report on the laptop, supposedly due to concerns about the authenticity of the computer and its contents. Below is a partial timeline of FBI’s involvement in the laptop.

  • Summer 2019: John Paul Mac Isaac, owner of the computer repair shop, attempted to notify the FBI through his father that he had a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden. The FBI turned Isaac away.
  • October 2019: The FBI contacted Isaac’s father and eventually Isaac to discuss the laptop, which occurred during the impeachment of President Trump. That same month, Hunter Biden’s attorney contacted Isaac about the laptop, but nothing came of that interaction.
  • November 2019: The FBI authenticated the laptop as belonging to Hunter Biden and determined it was not part of any foreign disinformation campaign. The FBI authenticated the laptop, in part, by matching communications contained on the computer with intercepted 2017 communications from China. The FBI kept the authentication confidential, supposedly due to concerns over foreign disinformation.
  • December 2019: The FBI seized the laptop from Isaac under a subpoena issued by a Wilmington Grand Jury. The grand jury had been investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign financial dealings. The IRS was also notified that the laptop likely contained evidence of tax crimes.
  • Run-up to the 2020 Election: The FBI warned social media companies about potential foreign disinformation related to the laptop, which caused the story to be suppressed on Twitter and Facebook.
  • Post-2020 Election: The FBI continued to remain silent about the authenticity and contents of the laptop, citing concerns over foreign disinformation and ongoing criminal cases.

Sources: Morris and Fonrouge, NY Post, 2020. John Solomon, Just the News, 2020. Kerr and Simonson, Free Beacon, 2023. Oliver, Washington Examiner, 2023. Sperry, NY Post, 2023. Graphic: President Biden and his son Hunter, AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu).

Journalism–BuzzFeed 2017

16 November 2024 By in History, Journalism Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

On January 10, 2017, ten days before Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th President of the United States, BuzzFeed News published an unverified, salacious dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer, suggesting that Russia had compromising evidence on the future President.

The dossier’s claims, laughable and fictional to any objective reporter, included graphic instances of abhorrent sexual behavior and treasonous activity. BuzzFeed supposedly attempted to verify or falsify any of the claims but was unable to do so. They published the dossier anyway.

On January 5, 2017, U.S. Intelligence, including James Comey, John Brennan, Mike Rogers, and James Clapper, briefed Obama on the contents of the dossier. The next day, likely on Obama’s orders, the same intelligence chiefs briefed Trump in New York. Trump later claimed that he thought the intelligence chiefs, mainly Comey, were trying to blackmail him. Comey knew at the time that the Democrats had funded the dossier but felt that information was immaterial to the discussion with Trump.

After much gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes concerning Trump’s alleged misdeeds by the mainstream media, it eventually came out that the Steele dossier was a complete fiction, although Steele to this day maintains its accuracy. It was bought and paid for by the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The dossier funding was brokered by the Democratic lawyer Marc Elias, who at the time was working for the Clinton campaign, through the law firm Perkins Coie. This firm then hired Fusion GPS, which in turn hired Christopher Steele to compile the dossier.

After the BuzzFeed publication, Trump responded a few hours later on X as shown in the attached graphic, calling it nothing but fake news.

Trivia: In May 2024, Vivek Ramaswamy paid $3.3 million for a small interest in BuzzFeed, attempting to steer its content to the right. His interest is too small to affect any change.

Source: These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties to Russia by Bensinger, Elder, and Schoofs, 10 January 2017, BuzzFeed. Graphic: X Response from Trump, 2017.