Business Insider: NY Post story that sent Trumpworld into frenzy is riddled with holes and red flags

News with a Twist

In a first, this story contains two kinds of “News with a Twist:” One from the NY Post (which they believe is not “twisted”); followed by another from Around the Block.

With a bit of Commentary thrown in for good measure!

Several news outlets have commented on a New York Post story about Hunter Biden, his computer and a computer repair shop owner. This, from Business Insider, is the most succinct:

• Trumpworld flew into a frenzy on Wednesday after the New York Post published a report purporting to show a “smoking-gun email” featuring Hunter Biden communicating with a Ukrainian official about meeting with his father, Joe Biden, when he was vice president.
• The Post’s story had several red flags that raised doubts about its authenticity. The most glaring questions center on whether the emails described in the story are legitimate, how they were uncovered, and how the Post obtained them.
• The Post’s report said an unidentified computer-repair-shop owner discovered the emails and other compromising material about Hunter Biden after an unidentified person dropped off a water-damaged laptop last year to be repaired but never picked it up.
• Business Insider identified the repair-shop owner as John Paul Mac Isaac, an avid Trump supporter who couldn’t get his facts straight when reporters later questioned him about the timeline of events laid out in the Post’s story.
• The Post also said it learned of the emails’ existence last month through Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, and obtained them through Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.
• Both men have pushed conspiracy theories about the Biden campaign’s ties to Ukraine, and Giuliani met last year with a Ukrainian official who was sanctioned in September and accused of acting as a Russian agent.
• In all, one expert said, the way the story was published appears to showcase “a standard tactic in disinformation operations.”

Despite the fact that the evidence seems to indicate that this is yet another conspiracy promulgated by Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani and the New York Post, other Trump loyalists were quick to jump on the bandwagon.

“NEWS: Biden lied when he denied speaking to his ‘son [Hunter] about his overseas business dealings,'” tweeted Kellyanne Conway, the former White House counselor.” (Really, Kellyanne, don’t you have enough on your plate at home. Your daughter hates you for not wearing a mask and spreading Covid to her. Can you not help yourself?)

“Joe Biden is a stone cold corrupt liar,” a tweet from the Trump War Room account said. In another tweet, it said that “Joe Biden thinks the American people are suckers.”

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley latched onto the story as well, tweeting: “Joe Biden using his office to benefit a Ukrainian oligarch after he said he didn’t. He is going to need to answer questions about this.”

There is one thing however, that Business Insider did not report:

In an Around the Block exclusive, we have learned that the computer in question was not Hunter Biden’s after all…it was Anthony Weiner’s…and that Attorney General William “The Bar Can’t Get Any Lower” Barr is opening up another investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Sources inside the Department of (In)Justice have said that Barr is having some trouble getting the investigation up and running as every U.S. Attorney he has tasked with the investigation has said, as one told Around the Block, “Take a hike. You’re out of here in three months. Fire me if you like…it will be the badge of honor I will wear with pride!”

One last thing. Those of you who lived in New York City in the ’50’s might remember that the New York Post, owned by Dorothy Schiff and edited by James A. Wechsler, was the great liberal, afternoon beacon of the New York press. And, it had the best sports section of any paper in the City. Thanks Rupert Murdoch for turning it into the rag it is today.