A passage in The Washington Post shows that media are determined to call the emails on Hunter Biden’s alleged laptop Russian disinformation – even though they know that they’re not – Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Monday.
Jordan, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted:
“The media knows the Hunter Biden emails are real.
“They know it’s not Russian disinformation.
“But they continue to cover up the scandal”
As evidence, Rep. Jordan posted a quote from a “Perspectives” piece by Author Thomas Rid in the October 25, 2020 edition of The Washington Post:
“We must treat the Hunter Biden leaks as if they were a foreign intelligence operation — even if they probably aren’t.”
In “Insisting that the Hunter Biden laptop is fake is a trap. So is insisting that it’s real,” Rid writes:
“Who is right? And how should the nation handle this leak and potential foreign interference at a critical time?
“Take a step back, and the Russian interference of 2016 holds valuable lessons on what to do and what not to do in 2020: We must treat the Hunter Biden leaks as if they were a foreign intelligence operation — even if they probably aren’t.”
“Indeed, there are good reasons to be skeptical of the theory that the laptop is a foreign plot,” Rid argues, providing extensive analysis, in his piece.
“Nevertheless, in the likely continued absence of certainty either way, the Biden leaks deserve the full potential-disinformation treatment,” Rid concludes, adding that “This means three concrete things”:
- “Every individual little fact — every email, every text, every photo — must be independently verified,”
- “The absence of a denial by the Biden campaign or Hunter himself should not be treated as a tacit admission of authenticity,”
- “Resist the temptation to jump to premature conclusions on “a Russian plant” without good evidence.”