NBC Nightly News ended its forty-seven-day silence on the mounting scandals surrounding Joe Biden’s drug-addict son Hunter on Wednesday when anchor Lester Holt and Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson reminded viewers who may have forgotten about Hunter Biden’s financial & legal problems.
Despite NBC reporting on President Biden’s criminal son, both ABC’s World News Tonight and CBS Evening News continued to ignore the story. Instead, they would rather focus on the U.S. women’s soccer team winning a lawsuit over equal pay and local weather reports.
Jackson opened her report by revealing the “President's son [is] under growing scrutiny tonight over his finances, with federal prosecutors in Delaware investigating Hunter Biden and whether he broke federal tax law. Now a representative for Mr. Biden tells NBC News his bill from the IRS about two million dollars, has been paid off.”
Yet the President’s son paying off the money he owes to the IRS doesn’t end his legal troubles, because as NBC legal analyst Chuck Rosenberg noted, “paying the tax bill, if in fact, that's what he did, doesn't undo the crime” and he even compared it to “returning money to a bank that you robbed. You still robbed the bank.”
Yet despite having not paid over two million dollars in taxes that he owed until now, Hunter Biden managed to spend “more than $200,000 a month on things like luxury hotel rooms, cash withdrawals, dental work, and payments on a Porsche according to documents on the hard drive” that NBC News had obtained from his laptop.
It’s not as if that reckless spending left Hunter little money to pay his taxes, because NBC reported Hunter and his company “brought in about $11 million between 2013 and 2018 including some years in which his father was Vice President.”
Hunter made that money as “an attorney, a board member to a Ukrainian gas company accused of bribing a prosecutor, and for a joint venture involving a Chinese businessman now accused of fraud.”
Towards the end of the report, NBC’s investigative correspondent Tom Winter believed that the “immediate focus appears to be for the President and Hunter Biden is whether or not there will be any charges as a result of this federal criminal investigation.”
This bias by omission from ABC & CBS was made possible by Prevagen on ABC, & Allstate on CBS. Their information is linked.
To read the relevant transcript click “expand”:
NBC Nightly News
5/18/2022
7:15:27 p.m. EasternHALLIE JACKSON: The President's son under growing scrutiny tonight over his finances, with federal prosecutors in Delaware investigating Hunter Biden and whether he broke federal tax law. Now a representative for Mr. Biden tells NBC News his bill from the IRS about two million dollars, has been paid off. Two people familiar with the matter say the money was arranged by one of the younger Biden's new attorneys, Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris best known for brokering a deal for the South Park TV show.
Does paying that tax bill wash away any liability that Hunter Biden may have now?
CHUCK ROSENBERG (NBC LEGAL ANALYST): Paying the tax bill, if in fact, that's what he did, doesn't undo the crime. It would be like returning money to a bank that you robbed. You still robbed the bank.
JACKSON: The President's son and his company brought in about $11 million between 2013 and 2018 including some years in which his father was Vice President, working as an attorney, a board member to a Ukrainian gas company accused of bribing a prosecutor, and for a joint venture involving a Chinese businessman now accused of fraud according to an NBC News analysis of a copy of Biden's harddrive and iCloud account as well as documents released by a Senate committee. During the campaign then-candidate, Joe Biden denied his son profited off a China connection.
JOE BIDEN: My son has not made money in terms of this thing about what are you talking about, China.
JACKSON: The records show Hunter Biden's company received nearly $5 million in consulting contracts from that joint venture funded by a Chinese energy company. A snapshot of Hunter Biden's spending shows that for about five months in late 2017 and early 2018, he spent more than $200,000 a month on things like luxury hotel rooms, cash withdrawals, dental work, and payments on a Porsche according to documents on the hard drive. A time period in which Hunter Biden has acknowledged struggling with drug addiction.
TOM WINTER (NBC NEWS INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT): The immediate focus appears to be for the President and Hunter Biden is whether or not there will be any charges as a result of this federal criminal investigation.
JACKSON: Hunter Biden's laptop a subject of controversy after documents recovered from it were brought to light by the Biden’s political opponents. With some cybersecurity experts at one point in 2020 suggesting it bore hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign. Since then, several news organizations have authenticated many emails from the laptop. And NBC News obtained a copy of the hard drive from a representative of Rudy Giuliani. The president has defended his son.
PETER DOOCY: Are you confident your son did nothing wrong?
BIDEN: I'm confident.
JACKSON: And Hunter Biden has denied any illegal business dealings.
HUNTER BIDEN: I am cooperating completely and I am absolutely certain, 100 percent certain that at the end of the investigation that I will be cleared of any wrongdoing.
JACKSON: Experts point out family members of a President who hold no official job in the administration are not bound by any government ethics rule.
WALTER SHUAB (FORMER DIRECTOR, U.S. OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS): Hunter Biden seems a lot like somebody whose primary profession is being Joe Biden's son, but unless there's a direct connection to Joe Biden, that's really more of a criticism of one private citizen rather than a government official or an administration.
JACKSON: Hunter Biden's attorney did not comment on the record and the White House has not responded to our request for comment. Lester?
