To: bentway who wrote (185819 ) 10/25/2020 4:00:34 PM From: Sam Read Replies (1) | Respond to Rudy Giuliani is trying to manipulate the press. It isn’t working — yet.Matt Gertz learned that the Trump campaign was bringing Bobulinski to the debate as the president’s “special guest.” Bobulinski had previously alleged that Joe Biden had been involved in a business venture involving Bobulinski, Hunter Biden, and the Chinese oil company CEFC China Energy Co. Three hours later, the campaign informed the White House press pool that it would be holding an event with Bobulinski before the debate. At 7:17 p.m. ET, Bobulinski appeared before the press cameras. He spoke for seven minutes, showed reporters three old cell phones that he claimed contained incriminating evidence about the Bidens that he planned to turn over to the authorities, and took no questions. At 8 p.m., Fox News star Tucker Carlson opened his show by calling Bobulinski’s appearance a “surprising, maybe shocking, maybe history-altering development.” At 9:32 p.m., Trump brought up the allegations during his debate with Biden. And at 10:47 p.m. , just minutes after the debate concluded, The Wall Street Journal published a story that brought the entire narrative crashing down.The venture—set up in 2017 after Mr. Biden left the vice presidency and before his presidential campaign—never received proposed funds from the Chinese company or completed any deals, according to people familiar with the matter. Corporate records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show no role for Joe Biden. The Journal reporters were able to report out the story and cast doubt upon key elements of Bobulinski’s narrative because they had access to the underlying documents. However, that hasn’t been the case with other elements of the Trump campaign’s attempt to smear Joe Biden through his son. Clinton Cash , the conservative author Peter Schweizer’s book targeting Bill and Hillary Clinton’s financial and philanthropic dealings, were made available to outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post, allowing them to report out stories about its contents before publication. The right-wing organization Judicial Watch sued for and released thousands of State Department emails over the course of the campaign. And WikiLeaks published tens of thousands of Democratic emails that had been hacked by Russian intelligence services. appear dubious . But Trump and his media allies just want to get the words “Biden” and “corruption” into as many stories as possible. And they’re counting on the press to carry their water.trove of emails and text messages allegedly obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop by a Delaware computer repair store owner. The validity of the documents is uncertain -- the store owner provided the laptop to the FBI in December 2019, and the bureau is reportedly reviewing whether the materials are part of a foreign disinformation campaign. What is clear is that Giuliani has a copy of the hard drive, which he says was given to his own lawyer by the store owner.mediamatters.org
