Corporate media ran with 'Russian disinformation' narrative about Hunter Biden's laptop despite having no concrete evidence. Now it refuses to retract any of it.

The New York Times published an article earlier this month that verified key aspects of the New York Post report from October 2020 regarding emails from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden and reportedly abandoned at a computer repair shop in Delaware.

"People familiar with the investigation said prosecutors had examined emails between Mr. Biden, Mr. Archer and others about Burisma and other foreign business activity," the Times wrote. "Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation."

Previously, the Times dismissed the bombshell story that broke during the 2020 presidential election campaign and questioned the Post's reporting process.

One day after the New York Post released its damning Hunter Biden laptop report, the Washington Post published an article claiming that then-President Donald Trump was being influenced by Russian misinformation.

"U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence, according to four former officials familiar with the matter," the report alleged.

On Oct. 19, 2020, more than 50 former U.S. intelligence officials disregarded the New York Post's laptop story as Russian misinformation in a letter.

The letter was signed by Barack Obama's former director of the CIA, John Brennan – who is now the senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. The letter was also signed by Obama's former director of national intelligence, James Clapper – who is now CNN's national security analyst. Former Director of the National Security Agency Michael Hayden – who was appointed by George W. Bush and is now a national security analyst for CNN – also signed the letter.

The former intelligence officials claimed that is their "view that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue."

"We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement – just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case," the letter stated.

During the final presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee, President Joe Biden parroted the letter, "Look, there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what this, he's accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said that this has all the characteristics – four – five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he's saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him, his, and his good friend Rudy Giuliani."

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki amplified the letter on the day it was released.

The Times declared days after the letter was published, "No concrete evidence has emerged that the laptop contains Russian disinformation."

In September 2021, the Times described the article about Hunter Biden as "unsubstantiated." However, the Times later removed the "unsubstantiated" description.

"Notably, the change was not accompanied by an editor's note or other acknowledgment of the original error," the National Review reported.

The New York Post recently reached out to all of the former intelligence officials who signed the letter asserting that the emails obtained from the alleged Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. The overwhelming majority of the officials did not respond or had no comment.

Of the 51 officials, only four provided responses – including James Clapper who said, "I stand by the statement made AT THE TIME, and would call attention to its 5th paragraph. I think sounding such a cautionary note AT THE TIME was appropriate." The other respondents said they stand by their decisions to sign the letter claiming Russian disinformation.

Corporate media outlets heavily spotlighted the report from the former intelligence officials despite the letter clearly stating that they "do not have evidence of Russian involvement."

Politico was the first to publish the letter, and ran with the headline: "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say."

TheBlaze has reached out for comment to Politico as well as several other media outlets and cable news networks that ran with the Russian disinformation narrative. The media outlets were asked about issuing a correction or update to the Hunter Biden story in light of the New York Times authenticating the emails from the abandoned laptop. At the time of publication, TheBlaze did not receive a response from Mother Jones, MSNBC, NBC News, the Hill, the Daily Beast, or Huffington Post.

A 20-minute video compilation of legacy media pushing the narrative that the emails from Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop are Russian disinformation despite lacking actual evidence highlights how feverishly cable news networks attempted to dismiss the laptop story. The compilation was created by a political video editor by the name of "Kanekoa the Great."