CBS News insider says network knew Hunter Biden Laptop was verified

TOP LINE: With new allegations this week about the 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 refute false claims that it was Russian disinformation. DEEP DIVE This week, our investigative team revealed new evidence of X from IRS whistleblowers about alleged double standards at the IRS and the Department of Justice in the Hunter Biden investigation. Case agent Joseph Ziegler told us they were blocked from taking any action that could have revealed the investigation’s existence before the 2020 election. “There were a lot of obvious investigative steps that we weren’t allowed to take because we had an election coming up,” Ziegler explained “And related to the president’s son. 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 at X, called “Bucking the Bureaucracy: The Cost of Coming Forward in the Hunter Biden Tax Case,” were reinforced by new reporting from the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee. They claim the Hunter Biden laptop reporting was suppressed before the 2020 election to gain political favor, “Facebook executives discussed calibrating censorship decisions to satisfy what they assumed would be a future 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 stuck with it.) This is the question I get asked the most. “What happened to the Hunter Biden story on CBS before the 2020 election?” I think it is best that the account comes directly from me. On October 23, 2020, about 10 days after the story broke, 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 to Evening News Anchor and Managing Editor Norah O’Donnell. Days earlier, I had been tasked with investigating the laptop and its contents after several platforms suppressed the story. Due diligence included working the phones, reaching out to people on Hunter Biden emails for confirmation and cross-referencing court records. The audited documents I collected also indicated that the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden.

Million Dollar Retainer from Chinese Energy Company

Signature page

I told Ciprian-Matthews that the materials under investigation included a million dollar container from a Chinese energy company, emails with Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski, and Hunter Biden text messages. Asked by Ciprian-Matthews if there was a “Hunter connection”, I replied: “Yes, all of them.” I then gave some of the vetted records directly to Ciprian-Matthews. We spoke briefly on the phone. I don’t know at this point what happened next. QUESTION FOR CBS NEWS/SEARCHING AN ANSWER This weekend, Saturday, I contacted CBS News PR with questions for Ciprian-Matthews and Norah O’Donnell. I followed up with a voicemail and a text to confirm that CBS had received our questions and the deadline of Sunday noon. When there was no response, I relayed our question Sunday morning, 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 correct, we ask that the inquiries be shared with them so that there is a full opportunity to respond. Thank you in advance for your consideration and acknowledgment of receipt of our question.” As of this writing, there has been no response, nor the kindness to acknowledge receipt of our question. For transparency, you can read the questions here.

Questions put to CBS News

Based on my reporting, and as the network’s senior investigative correspondent, the CBS News investigative unit was not tasked in October 2020 with developing 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 Hunter Biden’s laptop: “It cannot be verified.” When I watched the broadcast, I felt sick. I knew the laptop could be checked and verified. I was confused by what appeared to be a disconnect between the CBS News division and 60 Minutes. OUR RETENTIVE REVIEW OF THE HUNTER BIDEN PORTABLE DATA It took another two years for the network to air a forensic review of the Hunter Biden laptop data. I supported the report, which determined that both the data belonged to Hunter Biden and that it had not been tampered with. Our report was issued in November 2022 after the midterm elections. I may have more to say about the delay in the future.

Analyzed portable data

In contrast, in October 2020 there appeared to be little backtracking on claims by 51 former intelligence officials that the laptop had “classic earmarks” of a Russian intelligence operation. According to the published transcript of the edited 60 Minutes interview with then-candidate Joe Biden, Norah O’Donnell asked, “Do you think the recent leak of material allegedly from Hunter’s computer is part of a Russian disinformation campaign?” Candidate Biden responded, “… And then when you put the combination of Russia, Giuliani — the president, together — that’s just what it is. It’s a smear campaign because he doesn’t have anything he wants to talk about. What is he driving? What is he driving?” CBS News executives make the final call to the newsroom. As of October 2020, I believe preliminary reporting 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 look for a bigger story and refute disinformation claims. I was eventually assigned to the Hunter Biden case. I was encouraged that the most senior business leaders told me privately that 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 that their corporate goals were frustrated by CBS News executives and other employees who were reluctant to take on a story about the president’s son. IINTEREST IS DONE In 2023, the CBS investigative unit exclusively interviewed the same IRS whistleblowers, Shapley and Ziegler. But I learned that the network’s interest waned after the July 2023 plea deal for Hunter Biden fell apart and he faced gun and tax charges. As a senior investigative correspondent at CBS News for more than 4 years, our award-winning reports were a catalyst for legislative change that affected one million service members and their families. We helped secure 50 Purple Hearts for soldiers wrongly denied the award under the Trump administration following an Iranian ballistic missile attack on their base in January 2020. We got the audio of former President Trump appearing to brag and discuss secret documents about Iran at his golf club in New Jersey. CNN was the first to report the footage. We helped right the decades-old clock so that retired Colonel 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 substances at their overseas base after 9/11. Since then, with the help of veterans’ advocates, Nicholls’ courage has opened the door to long-awaited VA benefits and recognition. While I remain proud of these projects, I also believe that before the 2020 election, the Hunter Biden portable was a missed opportunity for CBS News.