How the Hunter Biden Laptop Story was Squashed

Ousted CBS reporter reveals how network squashed Hunter Biden story

An ousted veteran CBS reporter has written a lengthy expose revealing details about how the network squashed a Hunter Biden story. 

Writing on her newsletter, Catherine Herridge described the broadcaster's investigation into the laptop as a 'missed opportunity for CBS News', saying the broadcaster failed to properly report her findings. 

Herridge told company executives the laptop contained material about 'a million dollar retainer from a Chinese energy firm' along with Hunter's business texts and emails in early October 2020, before the election. 

But later that month, during a 60 Minutes interview with then-President Trump, correspondent Lesley Stahl said the laptop 'couldn't be verified'. 'As I watched the broadcast, I felt sick,' Herridge wrote. 

It comes after two IRS whistleblowers sat down with Herridge for an interview and told her they were banned from investigating Joe Biden amid the government's probe into his son. 

Herridge told company executives the laptop contained material about 'a million dollar retainer from a Chinese energy firm' along with Hunter's business texts and emails 

Now, Herridge says that CBS failed to properly report on what she found on the laptop.

'I had been tasked with vetting the laptop and its contents after multiple platforms had suppressed the story,' Herridge wrote, adding that she was commissioned by CBS News executive Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews to get 'confirmed reporting' on Hunter Biden for Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell in October 2020.

'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 spoke on the phone. I don’t know at this point what happened next.

'Based on my reporting, and as the network’s senior investigative correspondent, standard practice would have been for the CBS News investigative unit  to develop more reporting on the laptop, before the 2020 election. But they didn't.

Herridge said that a 60 Minutes interview with then-President Trump later that month made her 'feel sick' as CBS anchors told him the laptop 'can't be verified'. 

'I knew the laptop records could be vetted and confirmed,' she said.

'I was confused by what seemed a disconnect between the CBS News division and 60 Minutes.

'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 only broadcast in November 2022, too late, after the midterm elections.'

IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley And Joseph Ziegler, who were banned from investigating Biden, sat down with veteran journalist Catherine Herridge for an interview where they said the IRS looks the other way when it comes to the country's powerful elite, which they call 'sensitive persons'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14038833/cbs-reporter-hunter-biden-story-catherine-herridge.html

Ziegler said prosecutors specifically told IRS investigators 'that they didn't want to ask about the big guy, because they knew it was Joe Biden.'

The whistleblowers said the IRS, FBI and DOJ knew Hunter Biden's laptop was real but they were not allowed to look into it.

'There were a lot of overt investigative steps that we were not allowed to take because we had an upcoming election,' Ziegler added.

The whistleblowers said they have been punished for speaking out about the IRS' treatment of Hunter Biden. 

'The IRS just has a smothering blanket on me hoping that I quit, that they find some way to terminate me or commit suicide or something,' Shapley claimed.

Ziegler, on his part, said he is up against 'a machine that has millions of dollars that has the ability to fight me.'

Still, Shapley and Ziegler said they feel vindicated that Hunter Biden in the end pleaded guilty to the tax crimes outlined in the indictment against him. 

The two shared an email they received from their IRS supervisor after Hunter's conviction thanking them for their work.

'Those are words that are not supported by the actions of the agency,' Shapley said.

He added: 'This to me was someone who knows the IRS watchdog is looking into the way that they've handled this and they see the writing on the wall.

'This really is an example of them just covering their backside like a true bureaucracy.'

Shapley and Ziegler previously told congress there was a pattern of 'slow-walking investigative steps' into Hunter Biden, including during the Trump administration in the months before the 2020 election that Joe Biden won.

In testimony, Shapley alleged the DOJ dragged its feet in the probe into the president's son's taxes and Ziegler said Hunter 'received preferential treatment' during the process.

One of Shapley’s most detailed claims was that U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, asked for special counsel status in order to bring the tax cases against Hunter Biden in jurisdictions outside Delaware, including the District of Columbia and California, but was denied. 

Shapley said the Justice Department 'slow-walked' its probe into Hunter's taxes during his testimony in congress last year

Hunter Biden eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor and felony tax charges.

Prosecutors said that Hunter Biden lived lavishly while flouting the tax law, spending his cash on things like strippers and luxury hotels — 'in short, everything but his taxes.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14015105/IRS-whistleblowers-say-banned-investigating-Joe-Biden-specifically-told-not-ask-big-guy.html

Hours after being released from federal prison, the ex president's former chief strategist Steve Bannon said he had a warning for the Biden family: Pardon Hunter before he has to serve a sentence that could destroy him. 'I don't think Hunter Biden would last 48 hours in a federal prison,' he told DailyMail.com.

He left Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut , in the early hours of Tuesday morning. After broadcasting his War Room livestream show from a Manhattan hotel suite he sat down with DailyMail.com to talk about the lowest point of his incarceration, what he learned from the inmates and how life in the U.S. Navy had prepared him for being cooped up with so many men.

'I'm 70 years old. I can tell you, there's not many 70-year-olds I know on Wall Street or in the political class that could go to a federal prison for four months,' he said. 'It's extremely difficult. 'These places are violent places. There's lots of drugs. This drug, K2 is all over these prisons.' K2 is synthetic marijuana, also known as 'spice', that can be sprayed onto paper and smuggled into jails.

Bannon was straight back into the swing of the campaign on Tuesday morning. He returned to the airwaves at 10 am and used his show to accuse former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of trying to silence him. ' She sent me to a federal prison as a political prisoner, to do two things, to make sure that she tried to tamp down the power of this show, right, tamp down the power of the show, and also to break me,' he said.

He urged supporters to ensure Democrats 'cannot steal [November 5th],' showing that the prison sentence had not dimmed his fire. Later in the day it was on to a press conference, where dozens of journalists crammed into an upscale hotel suite to hear him repeat the claim that the 2020 presidential results had been stolen.