Giuliani gave Hunter Biden story to New York Post because 'nobody else would take it' at face value

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last updated 19 October 2020

The New York Post is standing by its series of articles based on files purportedly found on a laptop a Delaware computer repair man said probably belongs to Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. "The story was vetted and the Post stands by its reporting," a Post spokeswoman told The New York Times. The Post's reporters don't appear to be as enthusiastic about the articles, drawn from documents given to the newspaper by Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's lawyers, after a tip from Stephen Bannon, his former campaign chairman.

The first article "was written mostly by a staff reporter who refused to put his name on it," the Times reported Sunday night, citing two Post employees. "Bruce Golding, a reporter at the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid since 2007, did not allow his byline to be used because he had concerns over the article's credibility." The article was instead attributed to a deputy politics editor who "had little to do with the reporting or writing of" it and "learned that her byline was on the story only after it was published," and a recent hire from Fox News and Sean Hannity's show, the Times reports.

Giuliani told the Times he brought his documents to the Post because "either nobody else would take it, or if they took it, they would spend all the time they could to try to contradict it before they put it out." According to the Post, Hunter Biden, who lives in Los Angeles, dropped off his laptop at a repair shop in Delaware last year then abandoned it with, among other things, photographic evidence of drug use, sex acts with an unidentified woman, and sweet text messages from his father while he was in rehab.

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"It's not something that meets my journalistic standards," one Post reporter told New York Magazine. Another Post reporter called it "very flimsy," adding that the article "just makes you cringe and roll your eyes, and it's hard to stomach, but at the same time we kind of know that you're signing up for stuff like that. ... It's disappointing. It sucks to, like, work for, like, a propaganda outlet."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.