NPR issues stunning mea culpa after claiming Hunter Biden laptop story was ‘discredited’ by intelligence
National Public Radio has corrected an online article that falsely asserted that documents from first son Hunter Biden’s laptop had been “discredited by U.S. intelligence.”
A book review of Hunter Biden’s memoir “Beautiful Things” initially dismissed the documents first reported in October by The Post.
“The laptop story was discredited by US intelligence and independent investigations by news organizations,” the book review by Ron Elving, senior editor of the publicly funded media organization, initially claimed.
The correction on the Thursday article now says, “A previous version of this story said US intelligence had discredited the laptop story. US intelligence officials have not made a statement to that effect.”
Although some Democrats claimed that the laptop may have been “Russian disinformation,” President Biden’s campaign, the White House and Hunter Biden have not denied the laptop belonged to the first son.
In a new interview set to air in full Sunday on CBS, Hunter Biden admits that the laptop “certainly” could be his.
In October, The Post reported that documents from the laptop appeared to implicate Joe Biden in his son’s business relationships in China and Ukraine.
Hunter Biden later confirmed that he’s under federal investigation for possible tax fraud.
A Delaware computer repairman, who has since publicly identified himself, says Hunter Biden never came to pick up his laptop after dropping it off. He provided paperwork to The Post indicating there was a contractual clause that granted him rights to abandoned equipment.
Among the laptop’s contents was a 2017 email chain involving Hunter Biden and associates brokering a proposed business deal with a Chinese energy company, which described a 10% set-aside for the “big guy.” Former Hunter Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski publicly identified Joe Biden as the “big guy.”
As of February, the first son still owned 10% of a different Chinese business, an investment fund controlled by state-owned entities. The fund was formed 12 days after Hunter Biden joined his father aboard Air Force Two for a December 2013 trip to Beijing.