The Fakest Fake News Story

 

The Right-Wing Media Cult, and in particular Fox News, seems to be making itself absolutely breathless about the recent "news story" (perhaps I should say, fairy-tale) regarding Hunter Biden's supposed laptop and the alleged emails found therein. For those unaware, here's a synopsis of the claim:

It all started with an article in the New York Post, which is essentially the Fox News of newspapers in New York City. You can read the original article here. According to that article, Hunter Biden dropped off his personal laptop for repair at a computer repair shop in Delaware in April of 2019. The laptop allegedly had water damage. The shop owner, who is legally blind, could not identify whether the individual who dropped the computer off was Hunter Biden, but said there was a sticker on it from the Beau Biden foundation. When repeated attempts to return the laptop went ignored, the shop owner decided to look through the laptop's hard-drive. Why? No reason is given. Since the laptop had a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation, he might have simply contacted that foundation in a good faith and due diligence effort to return property and receive payment. He did not. Why? Again, we don't know. Instead, this store owner, after violating ethics and looking through the hard-drive, discovered sensitive emails pertaining to Burisma, and private videos showing Hunter engaging in drug use and lewd sex acts. At this point, the Post says, the store owner contacted the FBI, and turned over the laptop. But for some strange reason yet to be explained, he decided to make a copy of the hard-drive first. When it became clear to the shop owner that the FBI was not doing anything with the discovery, he shared the information with Robert Costello, who happened to be Rudy Giuliani's lawyer. Costello, in turn, gave it to Giuliani, who gave it to the New York Post. How did the shop owner, in Delaware, happen to know a lawyer in New York? The Post does not say. Why did the shop owner not contact his own lawyer? Or perhaps turn everything over to a Republican official in the State of Delaware? Again, no explanation.

The laptop's emails allegedly contain a "thank you" letter from Burisma official, Vadym Pozharskyi, saying how much he appreciated the opportunity to meet Hunter's father, Joe. And an earlier email from the same man asks for “advice on how you could use your influence” on the company’s behalf. This seems to contradict Joe Biden's assertion that Hunter didn't provide any contact between himself and Burisma officials. It also implies that Hunter's influence may have contributed to the firing of Alexander Shokin, who was purportedly investigating Burisma at the time.

When the New York Post broke the story, Facebook and Twitter banned it. Not because of the story's actual content, but because of a standing policy that hacked information is not to be transmitted over their social media platforms. Naturally, the Right-Wing Media Machine cried "censorship!" and pushed the story any way they could. President Trump  himself relayed the story, which ended up getting passed along through Babylon Bee - which is the Alt-Right version of The Onion.

So what's wrong with this?

Plenty. And lots of other news outlets are pointing out the flaws. But I don't believe those efforts are being thorough enough. So here's my breakdown on all the problems with this particular story-line:

1) The FBI is investigating this, not as a matter pertaining to Joe Biden exerting undue influence in Ukraine, but as a potential attempt by a foreign government at influencing the election. This from The Daily Beast and other sources. The FBI itself is declining comment, but if there were anything to this, there would be a James Comey type of investigation into Hunter's emails. There is apparently not. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It is Giuliani and his role which are being investigated.

2)  Vadym Pozharskyi seems to have never officially met Joe Biden. Oh, there's a remote possibility that he may have met Joe at a public event and shaken hands with him, but there was never a formal meeting. Biden's foreign policy and energy advisers have no knowledge of the man, and they're the ones who would have vetted and scheduled any such meeting. So, outside of a possible handshake, this Burisma official never met with Biden. That means the email linking Hunter Biden with Vadym Pozharskyi is fake. Furthermore, the email the Post cites does not actually show that Hunter Biden “introduced” Joe Biden to the Burisma executive at all. In the email, Pozharskyi thanks Hunter Biden for “giving an opportunity to meet your father.” That might may just as easily have meant Hunter promised a meeting in the future - a meeting which may never have occurred! The Post does not appear to have produced any other reporting indicating such a meeting took place. And what does Pozharskyi have to say for himself? So far, nothing.

3) The story itself is highly unlikely. Hunter Biden lives in L.A. He would have taken his computer to a Los Angeles computer store. Could he have brought the computer all the way over to Delaware while on a visit to see his father? Probably not, since his father was spending most of his time campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire at the time.

4) The shop owner keeps changing his story. The owner is John Paul MacIsaac of Wilmington. He is an avid Trump supporter. He initially said that he wasn’t able to identify who dropped off the laptop because he is “legally blind.” He only says that the customer had identified himself as Hunter Biden. Convenient. But what about his store's security cameras? Can't they show whether it was Hunter or not? The shop does have two cameras, but MacIsaac claimed the footage from that day was automatically deleted before he realized how important it was. What about the invoice? It's mad out to the name of "Hunter Biden," together with an address and a signature. Doesn't THAT prove it was Hunter? MacIsaac won't say. He’s given conflicting accounts of how he came into contact with the FBI. He says he initially made a copy of the hard drive for personal protection, Hillary Clinton purportedly once killed a DNC staffer for leaking information. MacIsaac has generally been sketchy with reporters regarding his dealings with Giuliani, and hard-drive in question.

5) The story is remarkably un-confirmable. There are photos of an FBI subpoena, but it has been redacted, so it could apply to anyone. There is a separate page showing Hunter Biden's address and what looks like his signature, but it is separate, and could easily be either forged, unrelated, or both. The hard-drive's contents are in the hands of the New York Post. But what's on that hard-drive? We don't know. The Post has only released certain photos which purportedly came from the hard-drive, but no one else has been allowed to examine it, or receive a copy. This means that we have only the Post's word for it, and that's not acceptable. Steve Bannon claims to have the copy of the hard-drive lately, but he, too, has been jealously guarding it.

6) The timing is suspect. If this laptop had been dropped off in April of 2019, then Giuliani probably already had the hard drive in his hands during the time of Trump's impeachment trial. Does anyone truly believe that Giuliani would have held on to this all through that crucial time for Donald Trump? This story should have broken back in January at the very latest. Instead it appears three weeks before the election? Yeah, riiiiiight.

7) The messenger is suspect. Rudy Giuliani has not only lost his marbles as of late, he has been red-flagged for months as a target for foreign influence from Russia. And now that very guy is the guy who gave the story to the New York Post? Couldn't Russia have found someone more credible? Like L. Ron Hubbard?

8) Even the reporters at the New York Post found the article suspect. The person who actually wrote most of the piece refused to sign her name to it out of fear that it wasn't true, according to an article by the New York Times. 

9) For the millionth time, Alexander Shokin was fired for NOT investigating Burisma! That's why Joe Biden was so proud of getting him fired! Shokin was then replaced with Yuriy Lutsenko, who completed the investigation into Burisma. So saying that Hunter influenced his father to pressure the Ukranian government to stop investigating Burisma is ludicrous!

As you can see, the story has as many holes as a sieve, and holds water about as equally well. Meanwhile, the lackeys at Fox News are treating the story as though it were the second coming of Jesus Christ.

I'll wait for the second coming of sanity.

Eric

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