{"id":1920136,"date":"2023-04-27T11:26:55","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T15:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-russia-hoax-orbiting-hunter-bidens-laptop-is-so-much-bigger-than-blinken\/"},"modified":"2023-04-27T11:26:55","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T15:26:55","slug":"the-russia-hoax-orbiting-hunter-bidens-laptop-is-so-much-bigger-than-blinken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-russia-hoax-orbiting-hunter-bidens-laptop-is-so-much-bigger-than-blinken\/","title":{"rendered":"The Russia Hoax Orbiting Hunter Biden\u2019s Laptop Is So Much Bigger Than Blinken"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-russia-hoax-orbiting-hunter-bidens-laptop-is-so-much-bigger-than-blinken%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1920136&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Antony Blinken represents neither the beginning nor the end of the info ops run to convince voters the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. Revisiting the contemporaneous coverage of the laptop story in light of last week\u2019s revelations about Blinken reveals the scandal extends far beyond the Biden campaign and involves government agents.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Last week, news <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/04\/21\/ex-cia-official-blinken-prompted-infamous-intel-statement-calling-hunter-biden-laptop-russian-disinfo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">broke<\/a> that a former top CIA official, Michael Morell, testified as part of a House Judiciary Committee investigation that Blinken, now-secretary of state and then-Biden campaign senior adviser, had contacted Morell to discuss the New York Post\u2019s Hunter Biden laptop story. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2119297564\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c8e0288d21ba766212da039007e05675 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c8e0288d21ba766212da039007e05675\"><\/div>\n<p>Blinken and Morell <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2023\/04\/21\/politics\/hunter-biden-laptop-story-antony-blinken\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reportedly<\/a> \u201cdiscussed possible Russian involvement in the spreading of information related to Hunter Biden.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/2023-04-20-jdj-mt-to-blinken-re-public-statement-on-hunter-biden-emails_0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According<\/a> to Morell, Blinken\u2019s outreach \u201cset in motion\u201d what led to the public statement signed by 51 former intelligence agents that falsely framed the laptop as Russian disinformation.<\/p>\n<p>This revelation is huge \u2014 but it\u2019s only a start to understanding the scope of the plot to interfere in the 2020 election by framing the laptop exposing Biden family corruption as foreign disinformation.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The First Clue<\/h2>\n<p>The first hint that Blinken\u2019s outreach to Morell was a single spoke in the wheel of the Biden campaign\u2019s deception came from a follow-up email Blinken sent Morell on Oct. 17, 2020. In it, Blinken shared a USA Today article that reported \u201cthe FBI was examining whether the Hunter Biden laptop was part of a \u2018disinformation campaign.\u2019\u201d The very <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/2023-04-20-jdj-mt-to-blinken-re-public-statement-on-hunter-biden-emails_0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bottom<\/a> of Blinken\u2019s email contained the signature block of Andrew Bates, then a Biden campaign spokesman and the director of his \u201crapid response\u201d team, suggesting Bates had sent the article to Blinken for him to forward to Morell.<\/p>\n<p>Blinken forwarding an article claiming the FBI was investigating the laptop as a potential \u201cdisinformation campaign\u201d is hugely significant because we know the FBI was doing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/ratcliffe-hunter-biden-laptop-emails-not-russian-disinformation-campaign\">no such thing<\/a>. The FBI knew both that the laptop was authentic and that John Paul Mac Isaac had possession of the hard drive, just as the New York Post had reported, albeit without identifying the computer-store owner by name.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-416b0e5270572b08f32f8b34c1abf07f fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-416b0e5270572b08f32f8b34c1abf07f\"><\/div>\n<p>The USA Today article nonetheless furthered the narrative that Morell and the other former intelligence officials would soon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/f\/?id=00000175-4393-d7aa-af77-579f9b330000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">parrot<\/a> in their \u201cPublic Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails\u201d \u2014 that the emails have \u201call the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For those who lived through the Russia-collusion hoax, it was the USA Today article and the presidential campaign\u2019s use of Russia to deflect attention from the Biden scandal that bore the \u201cclassic earmarks\u201d of an information operation \u2014 one that mimicked Hillary Clinton\u2019s ploy four years prior. Given the similarities between the two Russia hoaxes, it seemed likely the Biden campaign worked with the press to push the Russian-disinformation narrative.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">USA Today Didn\u2019t Start the Falsehood\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>Sure enough, the legacy press began pushing the narrative days before Blinken emailed Morell the article on Oct. 17.<\/p>\n<p>On Oct. 14, 2020, the same day the New York Post broke the first laptop story, Politico ran an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/10\/14\/biden-campaign-lashes-out-new-york-post-429486\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a>, co-authored by <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2019\/03\/27\/61-hacks-peddled-russian-collusion-never-trusted\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Russia-hoaxer<\/a> extraordinaire \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/02\/06\/how-biden-and-his-media-allies-turned-a-threatening-chinese-spy-balloon-into-a-political-feud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fusion<\/a> Natasha\u201d Bertrand, raising questions about the authenticity of said laptop. \u201cThis is a Russian disinformation operation. I\u2019m very comfortable saying that,\u201d Bertrand quoted former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and Biden adviser Michael Carpenter.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-262f8547e0d3de2e5a7aef583b375f4f fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-262f8547e0d3de2e5a7aef583b375f4f\"><\/div>\n<p>At the time, Carpenter also ran the Penn Biden Center \u2014 the same place a cache of classified documents from Biden\u2019s time as vice president and senator were discovered in a closet.<\/p>\n<p>Politico also quoted Bates, whose signature block would later appear on Blinken\u2019s email to Morell. Bates spun the scandal as one about Rudy Giuliani, who had provided a copy of the hard drive to the Post, and Giuliani\u2019s supposed connection \u201cto Russian intelligence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Intel Community Helped Peddle Russia Hoax 2.0<\/h2>\n<p>As was the case with the Russia-collusion hoax, the Biden campaign received an assist from the intelligence community. On Oct. 14, 2020, The New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/10\/14\/us\/politics\/hunter-biden-ukraine-facebook-twitter.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> that U.S. intelligence analysts \u201chad picked up Russian chatter that stolen\u00a0Burisma\u00a0emails\u201d would be released as an \u201cOctober surprise.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Burisma, of course, was the Ukrainian energy company that paid Hunter Biden nearly $1 million to sit on its board during his father\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/05\/26\/hunter-bidens-ukraine-salary-was-cut-after-joe-biden-left-office\/\">final<\/a> year as vice president.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The chief concern of the intelligence analysts, the Times reported, \u201cwas that the Burisma\u00a0material would be leaked alongside forged materials in an attempt to hurt Mr. Biden\u2019s candidacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lying Leakers Advance the Narrative<\/h2>\n<p>The next day, another foundational Russia-collusion <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2019\/03\/27\/61-hacks-peddled-russian-collusion-never-trusted\/\">hoaxer<\/a>, Ken Dilanian, published an \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2019\/03\/27\/61-hacks-peddled-russian-collusion-never-trusted\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">exclusive<\/a>\u201d at NBC. Citing \u201ctwo people familiar with the matter,\u201d Dilanian claimed that \u201cfederal investigators are examining whether emails allegedly describing activities by Joe Biden and his son Hunter and found on a laptop at a Delaware repair shop are linked to a foreign intelligence operation.\u201d Dilanian also quoted Bates, who again focused on Giuliani and his alleged connection to Russia.<\/p>\n<p>The Washington Post also embraced the narrative on Oct. 15, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/giuliani-biden-ukraine-russian-disinformation\/2020\/10\/15\/43158900-0ef5-11eb-b1e8-16b59b92b36d_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reporting<\/a>, \u201cU.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Trump\u2019s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence.\u201d Based on \u201cfour former officials,\u201d The Washington Post reported that Giuliani had interacted with people tied to Russian intel.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More Lies Leaked to USA Today\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>This brings us to USA Today\u2019s Oct. 16, 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2020\/10\/16\/hunter-biden-fbi-probing-if-new-york-post-story-tied-russia\/3684342001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a>, \u201cFBI Probing Whether Emails in New York Post Story About Hunter Biden Are Tied to Russian Disinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFederal authorities are investigating whether a\u00a0Russian influence operation was behind the disclosure of emails purporting to document the Ukrainian and Chinese business dealings of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2019\/10\/03\/what-really-happened-when-biden-forced-out-ukraines-top-prosecutor\/3785620002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hunter Biden<\/a>, the son of Democratic nominee Joe Biden,\u201d USA Today opened its article, citing \u201ca person briefed on the matter\u201d and immediately bringing up Giuliani.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to USA Today, that person \u201cconfirmed the FBI\u2019s involvement but did not elaborate on the scope of the bureau\u2019s review.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The next day, Oct. 17, USA Today followed up with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2020\/10\/17\/fbi-probes-possible-russia-link-hunter-biden-data-trump-ally-giuliani\/3661895001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a>, \u201cA Tabloid Got a Trove of Data on Hunter Biden from Rudy Giuliani. Now, the FBI is Probing a Possible Disinformation Campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It began by saying the New York Post portrayed the laptop contents as a \u201csmoking gun.\u201d \u201cEnter the FBI,\u201d USA Today interjected, reporting that \u201cfederal authorities\u201d are investigating whether the laptop is \u201cdisinformation pushed by Russia\u201d and claiming there are many questions about the laptop data\u2019s authenticity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExperts say\u00a0the story has many hallmarks of a disinformation campaign,\u201d it continued, using language strikingly similar to what the former intel officials would use days later.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Blinken Uses Reporting to Prod Morell<\/h2>\n<p>It is unclear which of the two USA Today pieces Blinken forwarded to Morell because both articles included the FBI investigation claims. It seems likely, however, that Blinken sent Morrel the second article because USA Today\u2019s Oct. 17 coverage included a quote from supposed \u201cexperts\u201d who said the New York Post \u201cstory has many hallmarks of a disinformation campaign.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That language tracked near-perfectly the wording used by the 51 former intelligence officials in their infamous Oct. 19 statement, which claimed the laptop \u201chas all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">That\u2019s Not All<\/h2>\n<p>Morell\u2019s contact with Blinken reportedly went beyond the phone call and email. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2023\/04\/21\/politics\/hunter-biden-laptop-story-antony-blinken\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CNN<\/a>, following his conversation with Blinken, \u201cMorell had conversations with other former intelligence community officials, which is what led to the letter,\u201d and then Morell \u201ccircled back to the Biden campaign to let them know that the letter efforts were underway.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In testimony to House oversight investigators, Morell told how Biden\u2019s campaign helped strategize releasing the statement, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/2023-04-20-jdj-mt-to-blinken-re-public-statement-on-hunter-biden-emails_0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letter<\/a> Reps. Jim Jordan and Michael Turner sent to Blinken last week. Specifically, \u201cMorell testified that he sent an email telling Nick Shapiro, former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Director of the CIA John Brennan, that the Biden campaign wanted the statement to go to a particular reporter at the <em>Washington Post<\/em> first and that he should send the statement to the campaign when he sent the letter to the reporter.\u201d Shapiro was another signatory of the statement.<\/p>\n<p>Politico, however, eventually first broke the story and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/10\/19\/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published<\/a> the statement, under the headline \u201cHunter Biden Story is Russian Disinfo, Dozens of Former Intel Officials Say.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mission Accomplished\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>In his testimony to House investigators, Morell \u201cexplained that one of his two goals in releasing the statement was to help then-Vice President Biden in the debate and to assist him in winning the election,\u201d Jordan and Turner wrote. In fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2023\/04\/21\/politics\/hunter-biden-laptop-story-antony-blinken\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according<\/a> to attorney Mark Zaid, who represents several of the signatories, \u201cwhen the draft [statement] was sent out to people to sign, the cover email made clear that it was an effort to help the Biden campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both parts of the ploy worked. When the final presidential debate arrived on Oct. 22, 2020, and then-President Trump confronted Biden with the details revealed in Hunter\u2019s \u201claptop from hell,\u201d Biden\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rev.com\/blog\/transcripts\/donald-trump-joe-biden-final-presidential-debate-transcript-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">responded<\/a>\u00a0by telling the American public:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he\u2019s accusing me of is a Russian plant. They have said that this has all the \u2026 five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he\u2019s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend, Rudy Giuliani.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Biden Campaign Thanks Morell for the Assist<\/h2>\n<p>Morell testified that after the debate he received a call from Jeremy Bash, who was one of the 51 signatories of the statement. Bash asked Morell if he had a minute to talk to Steve Ricchetti, head of the Biden campaign. Bash testified that he said \u201cyes,\u201d Bash got Ricchetti on the line, and the Biden campaign representative thanked Morell \u201cfor putting the statement out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More Than Dirty Politics<\/h2>\n<p>Morell\u2019s testimony revealed Blinken and the Biden campaign\u2019s role in prompting the bunk statement from the former intel officials. But the contemporaneous media reporting exposes a larger scandal: Representatives of our government helped promote that narrative by falsely telling media outlets the FBI was investigating whether the Hunter Biden laptop was part of a Russian-disinformation campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The FBI\u2019s role in assisting the Biden campaign\u2019s plot transforms this case from one about dirty politics to a scandal involving government interference in the 2020 election. Accordingly, the House oversight committees need to determine which members of the FBI or intelligence agencies were responsible for the false media leak and whether anyone working on behalf of the Biden campaign collaborated with those government actors.<\/p>\n<p>The committees thus need to gather evidence and question not merely Blinken, but every signatory of the statement, especially Bash; members of the Biden campaign, such as Bates and Ricchetti; and Biden advisers, including Carpenter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While Blinken provides an entry point to unraveling the Russian-disinformation hoax, there is much more to learn.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-391e0d502a7e10c4b1bc228f152ff4f5 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-391e0d502a7e10c4b1bc228f152ff4f5\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">   Margot Cleveland is The Federalist&#8217;s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.     Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time.     As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-tags bdr-top-black mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-15 pt-md-45\">\n<ul class=\"list-unstyled d-flex flex-wrap align-items-center mb-0 mx-n10 p-0\">\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/2020-election\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">2020 Election<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/antony-blinken\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Antony Blinken<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/corporate-media\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">corporate media<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/disinformation\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">disinformation<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Donald Trump<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/hunter-biden\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Hunter Biden<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/hunter-biden-laptop\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Hunter Biden laptop<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/intelligence-community\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">intelligence community<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/joe-biden\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Joe Biden<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/media-bias\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">media bias<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/new-york-times\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">New York Times<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/rudy-giuliani\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Rudy Giuliani<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/russia-hoax\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Russia hoax<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/russian-disinformation\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Russian Disinformation<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/usa-today\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">USA Today<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/washington-post\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Washington Post<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Antony Blinken represents neither the beginning nor the end of the info ops run to convince voters the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. Revisiting the contemporaneous coverage of the laptop story in light of last week\u2019s revelations about Blinken reveals the scandal extends far beyond the Biden campaign and involves government agents.\u00a0 Last week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":1920137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[3706,8356,4636,8857,3822,6880,25290,4280],"class_list":["post-1920136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-bidens","tag-bigger","tag-blinken","tag-hoax","tag-hunter","tag-laptop","tag-orbiting","tag-russia"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1920136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1920137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1920136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1920136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1920136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}