Thursday, October 15, 2020

ABiden in Bidengate

The top political story of yesterday was, without a doubt, a report from NYPo on what is supposedly the contents of laptop computer, purported to be Hunter Biden's, abandoned at a computer repair shop, and containing thousands of emails, as well as some, shall we call them "interesting" videos. Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad

Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company, according to emails obtained by The Post.

The never-before-revealed meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, allegedly sent Hunter Biden on April 17, 2015, about a year after Hunter joined the Burisma board at a reported salary of up to $50,000 a month.

“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure,” the email reads.

An earlier email from May 2014 also shows Pozharskyi, reportedly Burisma’s No. 3 exec, asking Hunter for “advice on how you could use your influence” on the company’s behalf.

The blockbuster correspondence — which flies in the face of Joe Biden’s claim that he’s “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings” — is contained in a massive trove of data recovered from a laptop computer.

The story of the how the laptop came to light strains, but doesn't break credulity. Remember, Hunter isn't the most responsible person.

The computer was dropped off at a repair shop in Biden’s home state of Delaware in April 2019, according to the store’s owner.

Other material extracted from the computer includes a raunchy, 12-minute video that appears to show Hunter, who’s admitted struggling with addiction problems, smoking crack while engaged in a sex act with an unidentified woman, as well as numerous other sexually explicit images.

The customer who brought in the water-damaged MacBook Pro for repair never paid for the service or retrieved it or a hard drive on which its contents were stored, according to the shop owner, who said he tried repeatedly to contact the client.

The shop owner couldn’t positively identify the customer as Hunter Biden, but said the laptop bore a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation, named after Hunter’s late brother and former Delaware attorney general.

Photos of a Delaware federal subpoena given to The Post show that both the computer and hard drive were seized by the FBI in December, after the shop’s owner says he alerted the feds to their existence.

Of course it's an October surprise. The copy of the hard drive allegedly came to Rudy Giuliani's hands after the repair shop owner failed to see anything come out of the FBI. So Rudy probably kept it in his back pocket until he deemed the optimum timing for the release. NYT, cited at Hot Air, U.S. Intel Heard Chatter That Hacked Burisma Emails Would Be Released This Month. More coverage, Fox News obtains email sent to Hunter Biden requesting his help as Ukrainian gas company was being probed. John Hawkins at Bongino, Senate Committee Reportedly Investigating “Smoking Gun” Email on Joe Biden, Hunter & Burisma, Breitbart, Report: Feds Had Evidence of Joe Biden’s Burisma Meeting Since Impeachment Inquiry, Ace, Senate Investigating Hunter Biden Hard Drive, "Smoking Gun Email" Proving that Joe Biden Lied When He Claimed He Didn't Speak to Hunter About His Burisma Business Dealings, FaceBook Interferes in Election, Again "Liar."Capt. Ed at Hot Air, Spox: Senate Homeland Security Committee Investigating New Hunter Biden Docs; Update: Biden Called Lid At 9:41, Sundance at CTH, Joe Biden Lied – Emails Show Hunter Biden and Joe Biden Met Together With Ukraine Energy Executives…, Scott McKey, Am Spec, Hunter Bidengate: Fredo With a Crack Pipe, Castro With a Social Network.  And a big one if true, Scott Hounsell at Red State, Giuliani Reveals Texts Allegedly From Hunter Biden Saying ‘Dad’ Got Half of His Contracts:

After the New York Post published a story on Hunter Biden’s dealings with Burisma today from information found on a hard drive that allegedly belonged to the former vice president’s son, Rudy Giuliani took to YouTube to lay out the case for a new accusation:

That Joe Biden was receiving half of Hunter’s contracts.

Guiliani presents a text message, allegedly from Hunter Biden to Naomi Biden, his daughter. In the text, Hunter says that he has been paying for everything for 30 years and it has been tough, but that he won’t take 50% of her salary as “Pop” did.
“I love you all but I don’t receive any respect and that’s fine I guess. Works for you apparently. I hope you all can do what I did, and pay for everything for this entire family for 30 years. It’s really hard but don’t worry, unlike Pop, I won’t make you give me half your salary.”
Also in the video, Biden describes contracts that his brother James, who was woefully unqualified, received simply because of his association with Biden as vice president. Biden also allegedly used his influence to help James’ wife, Sara.

Giuliani also suggests that he has additional information that he will be releasing in the coming days. The information is presumably from the drive that was recovered from a Delaware computer repair shop, which was also turned over to the FBI previously.

But is it all true? Trending Politics, Biden Campaign Finally Responds To Bombshell New York Post Report  "Hey, no fair, you didn't warn us." Brooke Singman at Fox,  Biden camp hits back at Hunter Biden email report suggesting then-VP met with Burisma exec.  Biden's camp issued a conveniently worded non-denial, NYPO, Biden campaign says Burisma meeting not on ‘official schedule’

Later in the day, the campaign — along with advisors to Biden when he was VP — admitted to Politico is was possible the two met back then, but claimed it would have been merely in passing.

Biden has not directly responded to the reporting, which appears to debunk his prior claim that he had “never spoken” with his son about his “overseas business dealing.”

Of course, the second part of the story is the media and social media reaction. Althouse reports that the NYT and WaPoo covered the story with skepticism they never used during the Russiagate hysteria,How the NYT and the Washington Post have caught up on the New York Post Hunter Biden story.

The NYT has this story, which, it says, went up 11 hours ago: "Allegation on Biden Prompts Pushback From Social Media Companies/Joe Biden’s campaign rejected assertions made in a published report that were based on unverified material from Trump allies. Facebook and Twitter found the story dubious enough to limit access to it on their platform."

The reaction of the social media companies — censorship — is most prominent, followed by Biden's reaction — rejection of the assertions and questioning of the material. The social media reaction is presented as reinforcing the Biden campaign rejection and — it is implied — justified by the "dubious" quality of the report. That the NY Post put the material in a news article isn't mentioned in the headline.

The Washington Post story, which went up at 10:45 CDT, has a much shorter headline, stressing the aggression of Trump supporters and the lateness of the attack: "Three weeks before Election Day, Trump allies go after Hunter — and Joe — Biden.". . .

And then there's the socials, PJ Media, Under the theory that they do not publish illegally obtained, material, never mind that if the above is true, it was legally obtained. NYPo, If ‘unreliable’ is the issue, why did social media never block anti-Trump stories?" Clearly a strictly rhetorical question. Facebook Exec ADMITS Throttling NYP Story About Biden Burisma Corruption, While Twitter Blocks Access, TNP, Facebook Censors Hunter Biden ExposĂ©, Admits Zuckerberg’s (Democrat) Policy Comms Director, PM, BREAKING: Twitter joins Facebook in suppressing NY Post's Biden bombshell,and BREAKING: New York Post locked out of Twitter after publishing Biden bombshell. Ace, Twitter Now Joins in Censorship of Hunter Biden Corruption Story "Update: Twitter's Public Policy Chief Leaves to Join Biden's Transition Team"

And reactions to the socials reactions? I don't have time to do it justice (just read yesterday's posts on Instanpundit to see why, but for starters, Anders Hagstrom at Da Caller, Josh Hawley Takes Aim At Facebook For ‘Actively Censoring’ Hunter Biden Email Story, Ars Technica, Twitter, Facebook face blowback after stopping circulation of NY Post story, Althouse, The notion that Twitter's the place to go to see what's happening — destroyed by Twitter, Jazz Shaw at Hot Air, Twitter: Yeah, We Didn’t Handle That NY Post Story On Hunter Biden Very Well. Your lies convinced no one. 

Twitter quickly went through a series of excuses for why they were doing this, beginning with claims that the content was “false.” They then moved to say that the story was “unverified,” before finally settling on saying the news was based on “hacked content.” All of those claims seemed to fall apart pretty rapidly and by the end of the day, Dorsey was forced to come forward and admit that his company had handled the issue in an “unacceptable” manner. But even then he didn’t say that they shouldn’t have been running this scheme to protect the Biden campaign. He just apologized for “not explaining it” well enough. (NY Post)

 Matt Vespa at Town Hall, Liberal Reporter: What Twitter and Facebook Did to Muzzle Biden Story Is 'Creepy and Authoritarian'. Sundance at CTH has Tucker Carlson Takes on Big Tech Censorship and Outlines Explosive Joe/Hunter Biden Story…


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