CHR - How Hunter Biden Laptop Got The CBS News Treatment

TOP LINE:

With new allegations this week about suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in the last Presidential election, I can’t help but reflect on my own experience at CBS News — what I believe was a missed opportunity to rebut false claims it was Russian disinformation.

DEEP DIVE

This week, our investigative team revealed new evidence on X from IRS whistleblowers about alleged double standards at the IRS and Justice Department in the Hunter Biden probe.

Case agent Joseph Ziegler told us they were blocked from taking actions that could have revealed the investigation’s existence prior to the 2020 election.

“There were a lot of overt investigative steps that we were not allowed to take because we had an upcoming election,” Ziegler explained  “And related to the President's son. So not even the candidate. And we weren’t allowed to do certain investigative steps.” (IRS,DOJ and others declined to comment)

The findings from our investigation on X, called “Bucking the Bureaucracy: The Cost of Coming Forward in the Hunter Biden Tax Case,” were amplified by new reporting from the republican-led House Judiciary committee.  

They allege the Hunter Biden laptop reporting was suppressed leading up to the 2020 election to curry political favor, “Facebook executives discussed calibrating censorship decisions to please what they assumed would be an incoming Biden-Harris administration…”

With these new developments, I can’t help but reflect on my own experience with the Hunter Biden laptop in the fall of 2020 after the New York Post broke the story (and bravely stayed with it.)

It’s the question I get asked the most.

“What happened with the Hunter Biden story at CBS before the 2020 election?”

I believe it’s best that the account comes directly from me.

On October 23rd, 2020 about 10 days after the story surfaced, I was contacted by senior CBS News executive Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews for “confirmed reporting” on the Hunter Biden story.  She said the confirmed reporting was for Evening News Anchor and Managing Editor Norah O’Donnell.  

Days earlier, I had been tasked with vetting the laptop and its contents after multiple platforms had suppressed the story. Due diligence included working the phones, reaching out to people on the Hunter Biden emails for corroboration and cross-referencing court records.  The vetted documents I collected also indicated the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden.

I told Ciprian-Matthews the vetted materials included a million dollar retainer from a Chinese energy firm, emails with Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski as well as Hunter Biden text messages.

Asked by Ciprian-Matthews if there was a “Hunter connection,”  I responded, “Yes, all of them.”

I then provided some of the vetted records directly to Ciprian-Matthews.  We did speak briefly on the phone. I don’t know at this point what happened next.

QUESTIONS FOR CBS NEWS/SEEKING A RESPONSE

This weekend, on Saturday, I reached out to CBS News PR with questions for Ciprian-Matthews and Norah O’Donnell. I followed up with a voice mail, and text message to confirm CBS had received our questions as well as the Sunday noon deadline.

When there was no response, Sunday morning, I forwarded our questions, adding the head of CBS PR and O’Donnell’s agent, writing:

“We are taking the extra step this morning of reaching out to you for comment and as a courtesy, extending the deadline until 2pm eastern. 

We have copied Ingrid and Norah.  If the email addresses are not accurate, we ask that the queries be shared with them so there is full opportunity to respond. 

Thank you in advance for the consideration and confirming receipt of our questions.”

As of this writing, there has been no response, nor the courtesy of acknowledging receipt of our questions.  For transparency, you can read the questions here. 

Based on my reporting, and as the network’s senior investigative correspondent,  the CBS News investigative unit was not tasked in October 2020 to develop more reporting on the laptop.  That would have been standard practice.  

In the 60 Minutes interview with then President Trump, correspondent Lesley Stahl said of the Hunter Biden laptop, “It can’t be verified.”  As I watched the broadcast, I felt sick.  

I knew the laptop records could be vetted and confirmed. I was confused by what seemed a disconnect between the CBS News division and 60 Minutes. 

OUR FORENSIC REVIEW OF HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP DATA

It took an additional two years for the network to broadcast a forensic review of the Hunter Biden laptop data.  I advocated for the report which determined that both the data belonged to Hunter Biden and it had not been tampered with.  Our report was broadcast in November 2022, after the midterm elections.  I may have more to say about the delay in the future.

By contrast, in October 2020, there seemed little push back to claims from 51 former intelligence officials that the laptop had “classic earmarks” of a Russian information operation.  

According to the published transcript of the edited 60 Minutes interview with then candidate Joe Biden, Norah O’Donnell asked, “Do you believe the recent leak of material allegedly from Hunter's computer is part of a Russian disinformation campaign?”

Candidate Biden responded, “... And so when you put the combination of Russia, Giuliani-- the president, together-- it's just what it is. It's a smear campaign because he has nothing he wants to talk about. What is he running on? What is he running on?”

CBS News executives make the final call on editorial. In October 2020, I believe the preliminary reporting provided to senior CBS News executive Ciprian-Matthews showed the laptop was worth digging into, and more facts should be gathered. I saw it as an opportunity for CBS News to lead on a major story and to rebut disinformation claims.

I was eventually assigned to the Hunter Biden case.   I was encouraged that the most senior corporate executives told me privately they wanted reporting that spoke truth to power on both sides of the aisle.  They even provided additional resources, but based on my experience, it seemed their corporate objectives were frustrated by CBS News executives and other employees who were reluctant to take on a story about the President’s son.

INTEREST WANES

In 2023, the CBS investigative unit did exclusively interview the same IRS whistleblowers, Shapley and Ziegler. But I found, after the July 2023 plea deal for Hunter Biden fell apart and he faced felony gun and tax charges, that the network’s interest waned.

As a senior investigative correspondent at CBS News for more than 4 years, our award winning reports were a catalyst for legislative change, impacting a million service members and their families. 

We helped secure 50 Purple Hearts for soldiers who were wrongly denied the award under the Trump administration after an Iranian ballistic missile attack on their base in January 2020.

We obtained the audio tape of former President Trump seeming to brag and discuss secret documents about Iran at his New Jersey golf club.  CNN was first to report the recordings.

We helped right a decades’ old wrong so that retired Col. Paris Davis, one of the first Black officers in the elite Green Berets, could be recognized with the Medal of Honor for his heroism in Vietnam. 

Two weeks before my position was terminated in February,  army whistleblower Nick Nicholls came forward with new evidence that service members were exposed to toxic agents at their overseas base after 9/11. 

Since, with the help of veterans’ advocates, Nicholls’ courage has opened the door to long overdue VA benefits and recognition.

While I remain proud of these projects, I also believe that prior to the 2020 election, the Hunter Biden laptop was a missed opportunity for CBS News.

Inside the SCIF

Late breaking today, I am hearing from many of you about Kamala Harris’ appearance on Saturday Night Live and what an FCC Commissioner called “a clear and blantant effort to evade FCC’s Equal Time rule” for political candidates.

In a snap poll, the vast majority of you, about 94%, say NBC should offer Donald Trump time on Sunday Night Football, the Today show or Nightly News. Based on the replies, many of you would rather see candidate Trump turn down an NBC offer and see NBC fined by the FCC.