There’s somewhat of a feud going on right now over at the Wall Street Journal between the Opinion section and the News division over the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Kimberley Strassel, who’s covering it in her column, says it’s a big deal:
WSJ edit page also obtained the Bobulinski emails/texts; we’ve been through them all. My coming column–online v. soon–will relay a disturbing story of Hunter, Joe and the Chinese. It’s quite something. Hold tight…
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) October 22, 2020
But the news division’s version is being called a “debunking of WSJ opinion side”:
WHOA. Wall Street Journal’s news side just released a debunking of WSJ opinion side. https://t.co/6HnehUtMHR
— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) October 23, 2020
The news’ article says, “Text messages and emails related to the venture that were provided to the Journal by Mr. Bobulinski…don’t show either Hunter Biden or James Biden discussing a role for Joe Biden in the venture.”
Trump was right about WSJ piece. There’s a bombshell here: “Text messages and emails related to the venture that were provided to the Journal by Mr. Bobulinski…don’t show either Hunter Biden or James Biden discussing a role for Joe Biden in the venture.” https://t.co/jQv58V3go7
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) October 23, 2020
And they’re arguing that Joe Biden’s name doesn’t appear on any of the corporate records (which, it wouldn’t):
“The venture, set up in 2017 after Biden left the vice presidency and before his presidential campaign, never received proposed funds from the Chinese company or completed any deals. Corporate records reviewed by WSJ show no role for Joe Biden” https://t.co/Y6hG95k6iN
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) October 23, 2020
Strassel then took to Twitter with this thread to explain why the news article did not debunk the story, at all:
1) On this question of Joe Biden being somehow exonerated on the China deal, how so? WSJ news story correctly notes that his name isn’t on documents. But those docs also suggest special care had been taken to make sure his name WASN’T visible.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) October 23, 2020
2) The doc w/proposed equity stakes said Hunter was going to hold 10% for the “big guy.” Tony Bobulinski, Hunter’s partner, says the big guy is Joe–and Bobulinski presumably told that to the FBI today. Got to wonder why he’d risk a false statement charge if that wasn’t true.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) October 23, 2020
3)Note that Hunter’s two other partners (Gilliar and Walker)did not respond to WSJ news question about who was “the big guy.” A 2017 text from Gilliar warns Bobulinski: “don’t mention Joe being involved.”
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) October 23, 2020
4) Bobulinski also presumably telling FBI he met with Joe, and that Joe was at some level aware of the deal. Note also that Biden camp did not provide answer to the WSJ news question about that meeting.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) October 23, 2020
5) So here are the right questions for Joe:
a) are you “big guy”? b) While Chinese $$ never materialized, were u at one point–via a Hunter–in line to have an equity share? c) Did u meet with Hunter’s partner? d)how does any this comport w/ your claims to not talk biz w/Hunter?— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) October 23, 2020
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