‘Didn’t See This Coming’: Journalist Gets Demolished On Social Media Over Hunter Biden Claim

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OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion

A New York Times report from this week led to the ridicule of media veteran Michael Isikoff on social media. Isikoff appeared convinced that damning information gleaned from the abandoned laptop of presidential son Hunter Biden was reliable.

He, along with many in the mainstream media as well as liberal political pundits and politicians, had previously doubted the accuracy of the findings, first reported by the New York Post in October 2020.

“In the category of – didn’t see this coming: The ⁦@nytimes⁩ confirms the authenticity of Hunter Biden emails derived from his laptop that had been previously dismissed as Russian disinformation,” he tweeted accompanied by a screenshot of a Times article stating that Hunter is still under investigation by the Justice Department for alleged tax fraud and failure to register as a foreign lobbyist.

A New York Times report stated that Hunter Biden, who is under investigation by the IRS for tax fraud and related matters, revealed to a business associate that his IRS bill, which totaled more than $1 million, was paid in full, but that he had to take out a loan to pay it.

In spite of this, he is still being investigated for alleged tax violations, “as well as foreign lobbying and money laundering rules,” the NYT reported, with this addition:

People familiar with the investigation said prosecutors had examined emails between Mr. Biden, Mr. Archer and others about Burisma and other foreign business activity. Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation.

As a result of Isikoff’s admission, he has faced severe backlash on social media.

In response to the Times story, Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz called journalists out, declaring that it was “an embarrassment to the media” that it dismissed stories about the Biden laptop as misleading information based on the testimony of former intelligence officials, “many of whom were Democrats” who “had no firsthand knowledge” to back up their claims.

On his podcast MEDIA BUZZmeter, Kurtz said:

Two weeks before the 2020 election, POLITICO ran a piece saying, ‘Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.’ Yeah, they all signed a letter. They had no firsthand knowledge. And there was this counterattack and Joe Biden embraced this, that this was all Russian disinformation. Except, apparently, the emails are real and this is not one that you can lay off on the Russians. …

So, looking back, this is an embarrassment. It is an embarrassment to the media that they rushed to pretend this wasn’t a story or say, well, yeah, it’s a story, but it’s not really a story or to say, it’s really just Russian disinformation when it obviously is a legitimate story about a federal investigation of the then-Democratic nominee’s son, now the president of the United States’ son. Now, will there be any soul-searching over this? Of course not.

In other Hunter news, Lunden Alexis Roberts, the mother of Hunter’s daughter, testified to a Delaware grand jury in the criminal investigation of Hunter last week, according to Clint Lancaster, her attorney. Former stripper Roberts had once been employed by Hunter Biden’s consulting firm, according to the New York Post.

The authorities have already received a substantial amount of Hunter’s financial records from Lancaster.

“I expect him to be indicted,” Lancaster to a CNBC reporter. “Just based on what I saw in his financial records, I would be surprised if he’s not indicted.”

Lancaster revealed he showed the records to the Arkansas child support court as part of a case against Hunter Biden.

According to him, he saw “a lot of information” as being “problematic” for Hunter, without stating specifically what he saw.

A report in the New York Times this week stated that Hunter Biden was also under criminal investigation for his lobbying work outside the United States:

Mr. Biden’s extensive work with foreign businesses came under scrutiny from prosecutors looking into whether he should have registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent. Investigators have examined Mr. Biden’s relationships with interests in Kazakhstan, a Chinese energy conglomerate and Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company, according to people familiar with the investigation.

They said prosecutors had investigated payments and gifts Mr. Biden or his associates had received from foreign interests, including a vehicle paid for using funds from a company associated with a Kazakh oligarch and a diamond from a Chinese energy tycoon. Prosecutors also sought documents related to corporate entities through which Mr. Biden and his associates conducted business with interests around the world.

When Hunter Biden was living with the widow of his deceased brother, he attempted to claim he was not the father of a child with Roberts in the child support case in Arkansas. Nonetheless, a DNA test reportedly confirmed Hunter Biden’s fatherhood.

“DNA testing has established, ‘with scientific certainty,’ that Hunter Biden is the father of an Arkansas baby, according to a motion filed Wednesday in Independence County on behalf of the child’s mother, Lunden Alexis Roberts,” according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “Hunter Biden, who initially denied having sexual relations with Roberts, eventually agreed to take a DNA test, according to documents filed by Roberts’ attorney, Clint Lancaster.”

When Lancaster was asked if Hunter Biden had ever seen his 3-year-old daughter, he replied, “No, he has not.”

Source: The Republic Brief