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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Hunter Biden demands that Fox News remove ‘intimate’ images from | |
its platforms | |
By Holmes Lybrand and Dana Bash, CNN | |
Updated: | |
10:29 AM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
Hunter Biden is demanding that Fox News remove from its platforms | |
sexually explicit images that President Joe Biden’s son says are | |
private, according to a letter obtained by CNN, as part of his strategy | |
to publicly fight back against conservative media. | |
The letter sent by attorneys for Hunter Biden to Fox News and FOX Corp. | |
alleges conspiracy to defame and unlawful publication of “hacked” | |
images, seeking corrections and retractions on air and in online | |
articles to claims that President Biden and his son engaged in a | |
bribery scheme abroad. | |
Hunter Biden’s legal team has undertaken an aggressive legal and | |
public relations strategy for several months. His lawyers have fired | |
off letters demanding investigations into Hunter Biden’s opponents | |
and filed a series of lawsuits against his detractors. Hunter Biden’s | |
lawyers say they “anticipate” suing Fox but have not yet done so. | |
This stepped-up strategy by Hunter Biden to defend himself against the | |
onslaught of attacks of President Biden’s political advisers. But the | |
president has publicly defended his son, who separately faces gun and | |
tax charges in Delaware and California. Hunter Biden has pleaded not | |
guilty to those criminal charges. | |
“For the last five years, Fox News has relentlessly attacked Hunter | |
Biden and made him a caricature in order to boost ratings and for its | |
financial gain,” Hunter Biden’s attorneys Mark Geragos, Bryan | |
Freedman and Tina Glandian said in a statement. | |
The media outlet aired a mock trial of Hunter Biden on the streaming | |
platform Fox Nation in 2022, focused on the unproven bribery | |
allegations, and published “intimate images of Mr. Biden depicting | |
him in the nude as well as engaged in sex acts,” according to the | |
letter, which demands that Fox immediately remove the series from all | |
streaming platforms. | |
“FOX knows that these private and confidential images were hacked, | |
stolen, and/or manipulated digital material,” Hunter Biden’s | |
attorneys wrote in the letter, which contained several of the explicit | |
images, some of which were blurred. | |
Publishing these images, the attorneys said, violated “the majority | |
of states’ laws against the nonconsensual disclosure of sexually | |
explicit images and videos, sometimes referred to as ‘revenge porn’ | |
laws.” | |
Hunter Biden’s attorneys also take issue with Fox News publishing | |
several articles on the bribery allegations, citing an FBI informant | |
who was recently indicted for allegedly lying to investigators about | |
Hunter Biden and the bribery plot. | |
The informant, Alexander Smirnov, has pleaded not guilty to the charges | |
and is . | |
Attorneys for the president’s son allege that Fox News “initially | |
remained silent” on news of Smirnov’s indictment “despite the | |
fact that this now rendered the prior reporting on these allegations | |
highly misleading.” | |
“Then, in a brazen show of no remorse, rather than walk back the | |
story and correct the record, FOX double-downed on the debunked bribery | |
allegation and used Smirnov’s indictment to claim this is an | |
‘intimidation tactic’ aimed at silencing ‘whistleblowers,’ to | |
blame the FBI for its credulity, and to suggest an even deeper | |
conspiracy,” the letter alleges. | |
In response to the lawsuit threats, a Fox News Media spokesperson | |
defended the network’s “constitutionally protected coverage” of | |
Hunter Biden, a “public figure who has been the subject of | |
investigations by both the Department of Justice and Congress.” | |
“Consistent with the First Amendment, Fox News has accurately covered | |
these highly publicized events as well as the subsequent indictment of | |
an FBI informant who was the source of certain claims made about Mr. | |
Biden,” the spokesperson said in the statement. | |
The letter from Hunter Biden’s legal team demands Fox News issue | |
editor’s notes to online articles “informing readers of the | |
indictment” and have several prominent Fox News hosts including Sean | |
Hannity, Maria Bartiromo and Jesse Watters “inform their viewers on | |
air that they have been sharing a debunked allegation from a source who | |
has been federally indicted.” | |
The bribery allegations have been central to the GOP’s impeachment | |
inquiry into President Biden. CNN has reported that to impeach him. | |
This story has been updated with additional developments. | |
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