How fact-checkers first reported on Biden’s family business
Hudson Crozier
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Now that Hunter Biden‘s business partner Devon Archer has reportedly told Congress that the first son put then-Vice President Joe Biden on the phone with businessmen across the globe at least 20 times, it is a good time to revisit what some fact-checkers first said about the Biden family business when the story first became prominent in 2019.
The Washington Post, for example, had a September 2019 “fact check” defending the Biden family from “Trump’s false claims” about foreign ties. Every one of the paper’s rebuttals have fallen apart in light of newer information.
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The paper declared it false that Biden, as vice president, “pushed out” a prosecutor for investigating the Ukrainian company his son belonged to. It even said the prosecutor was not investigating the company at all. “Biden was among the many Western officials who pressed for the removal of Shokin because he actually was not investigating the corruption endemic to the country,” it said.
In reality, the investigation was dormant, not closed at the time. The prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, reportedly told Rudy Giuliani that he paused the investigation “out of fear of the United States.” According to a credible FBI informant, a Burisma executive knew that his company was guilty of corruption and said he had paid Joe and Hunter Biden to resolve the situation. The senior Biden then withheld funds from Ukraine with the explicit intent of pressuring the country to fire Shokin.
It is indisputable that Biden’s actions had the effect of saving his son’s business partners from investigation. That other leaders had their own reasons for disliking Shokin was never proof of what Biden’s motives were.
“False: Hunter Biden made a killing on a Chinese deal,” the Washington Post’s article blared. I suppose that’s correct in the sense that it wasn’t one Chinese deal. There were several, including ones with entities tied to the Chinese government, according to bank records.
The first son’s equity stake in BHR Partners, a fund tied to the state-owned Bank of China, was already proven at the time of the article. The Washington Post dismissed the “claim” of a deal just because he had not received money yet. It was already known that the fund was tied to investments in the Chinese government’s surveillance technology. Nothing to see here, says the fact-checker.
Later on, Hunter Biden’s emails revealed him bragging that his “last name” helped him secure the deal.
The paper even embarrassingly claimed it was “false” that the president misled people by saying he “never” talked business with his son. We now know so much about his involvement that even the White House has changed its story. It now specifies that the president has never “been in business” with his son, supposedly.
Investigating the president’s suspicious and secretive foreign ties and how they might affect his leadership is undeniably important for America. Polling indicates that most voters agree. It is no thanks to the self-declared defenders of “democracy” at the Washington Post that the public has found out more over the years.
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Hudson Crozier is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.