All About the Bidens: RealClearInvestigations' Hunter Biden Reader}

This is RealClearInvestigations’ Hunter Biden Reader, a compendium of news reports aggregated across the political spectrum documenting the dubious dealings and apparent influence peddling of Joe Biden's errant son and other family members.

Notably, it illustrates a partisan divide that now defines so much political debate and news coverage. Though much of the story was reported even-handedly and in-depth by some news outlets, including RealClearInvestigations, it was suppressed at crucial times by anti-Trump Democrats; left-leaning legacy media outlets relying on inaccurate or dishonest and probably partisan intelligence sources; and social media giants Facebook and Twitter.

The greatest consequence was the stifling of an October surprise of potentially historic proportions: Emails from Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop, suggesting an aspiring president mixed up in corrupt foreign dealings by his son, did not break through to wide public awareness during the 2020 presidential campaign, as polling indicated. To this day, the Wikipedia entry for Hunter Biden makes a single passing mention of "a laptop purportedly belonging to Biden."

The Hunter Biden story was suppressed in several ways:

It was suppressed during the first Trump impeachment in late 2019 and early 2020: Democratic House trial managers rejected Republican attempts to call witnesses who could shed light on Hunter and the former vice president's dealings in Ukraine. These included Eric Ciaramella, the "whistleblower" kept anonymous by Democrats and most media who worked on Ukraine policy for Biden when the Vice President was President Obama's "point man" for the country. The impeachment failed in the GOP-controlled Senate, but it nevertheless succeeded in shifting attention from Hunter and onto President Trump's alleged abuse of his office to blackmail Ukraine's leader to destroy his opponent Biden.
It was suppressed late in the 2020 campaign by intelligence sources leaking to compliant major media: When the New York Post last October published exclusives rebutting Joe Biden’s repeated statements that he knew nothing about his son’s business activities abroad, the Biden campaign and its media allies sought to discredit the news, notably quoting intelligence veterans who claimed the release of the Hunter Biden emails had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian intelligence operation."
It was also suppressed late in the campaign by social media. When the New York Post tweeted out the story, Twitter suspended the newspaper’s account, claiming it would not disseminate stories based on hacked materials — even though the Post’s story was not based on such information. And Facebook, in a departure from its moderation practices, admitted to curbing the reach of the Post story before it had been fact-checked at all.

It wasn't until after the election that the New York Post was vindicated: With the laptop in its possession for some time, the FBI revealed that Hunter Biden had long been under investigation, but the probe was kept quiet for fear of tilting the presidential campaign.

Now it is clear the Hunter Biden story is not going away. Revelations continue to emerge from hard drive of the laptop, first obtained by Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani. A new book on the Bidens by Ben Schreckinger of Politico, well received by major media, has verified some emails on the laptop. And ethical questions continue to be raised (as recently as last week) over anticipated high-priced sales of novice painter Hunter's abstract artwork to anonymous buyers.

RCI's Hunter Biden Reader, a standing feature to be updated as needed, is arranged by the topic areas below, hyperlinking to reading in further detail. But for an overview of the central issues raised, here are five foundational articles:

ABC News’ 2019 interview, “Hunter Biden Defends Foreign Ventures but Concedes Political 'Mistake,'” in which he conceded that his private ventures have political implications for his father’s career.
Paul Sperry’s October 2020 article for RCI, “Joe Biden's Boosters Wrote Prodigal Son Hunter's Entire Resume,” which reported that virtually all the jobs in his adult life came courtesy of the former six-term senator’s donors, lobbyists and allies.
The New York Post’s exclusive from October 2020, “Emails Tie Biden, Son to Burisma Exec,” which was the first to mine information on the Hunter Biden laptop to challenge his father’s claim that he had nothing to do with his son’s foreign business ventures, including his lucrative service on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma.
Breitbart’s October 2020 article, “'Big Guy' in Email Was Joe Biden, Recipient Confirms,” on the claims by whistleblower CEO and Biden insider Tony Bobulinski that he personally witnessed Joe Biden discussing business deals with his son.
National Review’s September 2020 article “Hunter Biden's Deals With Russians, Chinese, Kazakhs Etc.,” which detailed a Senate report describing extensive business dealings that Hunter pursued with politically connected foreign nationals while his father was vice president.

All About the Bidens: RealClearInvestigations' Hunter Biden Reader

Further Reading by Topic