NYT finally admits Hunter's laptop is real

Byron York does not strike me as snarky. Nevertheless, he tweeted minutes ago, "New York Times flash: Hunter Biden had a laptop. It contained emails about his foreign business activities. Those emails have been 'authenticated by people familiar with them and with the [Biden tax and foreign influence] investigation.'"

A federal prosecutor is closing in on Hunter like NYT falsely claimed Mueller was doing on President Donald John Trump.

Apparently, Hunter may be going down and NYT wants to get ahead of the story.

It is too late.

The New York Post busted Hunter and the FBI over this laptop two weeks before the the 2020 election. Rather than reward the post with a Pulitzer, the media clamored for Twitter and other social media to censor the story. Social media complied.

NYT reported at the time, "The laptop prompted concerns about Russian disinformation because the intelligence community has warned for months about Russian attempts to influence the election, including by spreading disinformation about the Biden family. Russia has conducted a hacking campaign to find information damaging to the Biden campaign, most notably through a hack on Burisma."

The FBI said that because it had the laptop and had authenticated it in 2019 when a computer repairman turned it in because it contained evidence of widespread corruption by the Biden Mafia. The FBI sat on the laptop because the bureau wanted to protect Biden. 

The Post reported 5 days ago, "The Delaware computer repair shop owner who alerted the FBI to Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop before ultimately taking it to Rudy Giuliani says he’s faced harassment from Big Tech, the IRS and other government agencies ever since, and now faces bankruptcy."

This whistleblower could have used a little help from the media.

But the media is a handmaiden to the DNC. A few outposts like the New York Post hang in there.

NYT said today, "Hunter Biden Paid Tax Bill, but Broad Federal Investigation Continues."

The story began, "In the year after he disclosed a federal investigation into his 'tax affairs' in late 2020, President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, paid off a significant tax liability, even as a grand jury continued to gather evidence in a wide-ranging examination of his international business dealings, according to people familiar with the case."

Those taxes were on his bribes from companies in Ukraine and elsewhere.

He failed to register as a foreign agent, the same thing that helped land Paul Manafort in jail. NYT fretted over whether Hunter intentionally violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

I don't recall NYT bringing up intent in its stories about Manafort.

NYT said today, "People familiar with the investigation said prosecutors had examined emails between Mr. Biden, Mr. Archer and others about Burisma and other foreign business activity. Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation.

"In some of the emails, Mr. Biden displayed a familiarity with FARA, and a desire to avoid triggering it."

So much for the childlike I-didn't-know-the-law.

He has a law degree from Yale.

I am beginning to believe politicians send their kids to law school to learn how to get around the law.

NYT's sudden conversion amused critics.

The New York Post wrote an editorial, "Now that Joe Biden’s president, the Times finally admits: Hunter’s laptop is real."

The Post said, "Now we’re 16 months away from the 2020 election, Joe Biden’s safely in the White House, and the Times finally decides to report on the news rather than carry the Biden campaign’s water. And they find that hey, Hunter Biden’s business interests benefited from Joe Biden’s political status to a suspicious degree. Perhaps this is a topic worthy of examination."

Most liberals this morning are feigning astonishment at NYT's "scoop."

Well, it is a scoop, but of stuff farmers usually spread over their fields.

To its credit, National Review mocked NYT, too. Its Andrew McCarthy wrote, "It has always been obvious that a federal investigation of Hunter Biden, assuming it was a serious one, had to be far more expansive than his tax problems. And sure enough, the Times is now reporting what was knowable but largely concealed before the 2020 election: The Justice Department probe, which is being run out of Delaware by David C. Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney (who started in that office under President Bush-43 and was interim U.S. attorney for two years under President Obama), is a serious one.

"A grand jury is hearing testimony and scrutinizing documents.

"Prosecutors are examining the intriguing streams of payments to Hunter by the Ukrainian energy company (Burisma), the Chinese conglomerate (CEFC — see my column here), and a 'company associated with a Kazakh oligarch.'"

Journalists used to say follow the money.

I still do.

NYT was once on life support protected by the generosity of a Mexican billionaire. The Sulzbergers may have the titles, but he ultimately calls the shots.

Now that Biden is safely ensconced behind the Resolute Desk, NYT is free to admit Hunter's laptop is real.

Now for a totally unrelated video.