Journalist Glenn Greenwald blasts the media’s ‘cone of silence’ around Hunter Biden’s email scandal and calls out the ‘blatant rank-closing’ from news outlets

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Journalist Glenn Greenwald, the founder of The Intercept, has lambasted his fellow reporters and the media for 'cone of silence' regarding a report that allegedly detailed Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings.

On Monday night, Greenwald unleashed a Twitter thread that questioned why media outlets weren't pursuing the reported details.

'Is there a single journalist willing to say with a straight face they believe the emails relating to the Bidens are either fabricated or otherwise fraudulently altered, but the Bidens just aren't saying so?' wrote Greenwald.  

'There has to be some limits to your willingness to go to bat for them.'

Glenn Greenwald (pictured) questioned why more media outlets weren't reporting on and investigating Hunter Biden's alleged emails 

Pictured: Hunter Biden (left) and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden attend the World Food Program USA's Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony at Organization of American States on April 12, 2016 in Washington, DC.

Greenwald: 'Is there a single journalist willing to say with a straight face they believe the emails relating to the Bidens are either fabricated or otherwise fraudulently altered, but the Bidens just aren't saying so?'

Last Wednesday, The New York Post unveiled a bombshell report that showed emails allegedly written by Hunter Biden and obtained from a laptop left at a repair shop.

The report said the email suggested Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden had used his influence as vice president to sway favor with an Ukrainian energy company.

While The Post has expanded its reporting on the alleged email and outlets like Fox News further pushed the allegations, several other publications have questioned the validity of the reporting. 

Thomas Rid, professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, suggested the report was suspicious.

'This here is highly suspicious behavior. Especially when viewed in the context of a political campaign. Creative, anonymous, credibility-generating, somewhat plausible. Exactly how a professional would surface disinformation and potentially forgeries,' he wrote. 

Part of his Twitter thread explained that the alleged emails were shared as image files, which don't contain header information and metadata.

'That makes it harder to analyze and verify the files.'

'Bottom line: *every individual little fact*—every email, every detail mentioned in an email—must be verified when data is surfaced in such a suspicious way, not just one piece of information, say a photo,' he added.

Pictured: Photos of Hunter Biden (left and right) allegedly taken from his laptop 

The New York Post report reignited the GOP's attack on Hunter Biden (pictured), who has not yet addressed the article or its alleged findnigs 

And the Daily Beast revealed that the repair shop owner, Mac Isaac, struggled to maintain the timeline of events reported in the Post's story.

'...throughout the interview, Mac Isaac switched back and forth from saying he reached out to law enforcement after viewing the files in the laptop to saying that it was actually the Federal Bureau of Investigation that contacted him,' they reported. 

On Twitter, Greenwald added that he doesn't 'think that the emails -- so far -- reveal a huge scandal. They so far just establish standard sleaze and DC corruption. 

'The huge scandal to me is the blatant rank-closing and cone of silence -- a prohibition -- erected *by journalists* around this story to defend Biden.'

Greenwald said in his Twitter thread that 'the huge scandal to me is the blatant rank-closing and cone of silence -- a prohibition -- erected *by journalists* around this story to defend Biden'

'When you report a huge archive, there's no way to prove the negative that none of it is altered. You investigate & confirm as much as you can, then use your journalistic judgment. 

'The only way you get confirmation is when the subjects of the reporting don't deny the authenticity.' 

Greenwald, who reported on the infamous Edward Snowden archive, offered his own personal experience for comparison.

'As a journalist publishing private communications & docs that are incriminating, you know the subjects of the reporting will immediately claim they're fake *if the are*,' he wrote.

'Of course they will: that would kill the reporting! There's a reason the Bidens aren't claiming they're fake.'

Pictured: US journalist Glenn Greenwald, founder and editor of The Intercept website gestures during a hearing at the Lower House's Human Rights Commission in Brasilia, Brazil, on June 25, 2019

In a related Twitter thread, Greenwald called Rep. Adam Schiff of California a 'pathological liar'

Greenwald continued on Monday to rail against the mainstream media, and also took aim at Rep. Adam Schiff of California.

Schiff, in Greenwald's opinion, was vital in influencing Americans to believe that Russia played a large role recent U.S. politics. 

'Adam Schiff has been stating definitively that Russia is behind the NY Post story, even though he has no idea whether that's true. That's because Adam Schiff is an absolute pathological liar, abusing his position as Intelligence Committee Chair to scream RUSSIA & lie constantly,' wrote Greenwald.

'I don't use mental illness as a metaphor. I mean it literally: the way so much of liberal America has been trained to believe RUSSIA is behind everything unpleasant in life, and to dismiss everything the minute liars like CIA & Schiff scream the world, is a collective pathology.'

Greenwald added that regardless of ideological affilitation, 'just stop and ponder what a powerful weapon it is to train a population to believe some mid-rate foreign power is behind all of the nation's woes - so they never focus on real domestic power - and to instantly disregard all information by screaming RUSSIA.'

Most recently, a receipt from The Mac Shop in Wilmington, Delaware, appeared to show Hunter Biden’s signature signing off for repair work on three MacBook Pro laptops for $85, according to Fox.

A receipt from The Mac Shop in Wilmington, Delaware, appears to show Hunter Biden’s signature signing off for repair work on three MacBook Pro laptops for $85

Other obtained documents include FBI paper work showing computer repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac received a subpoena to testify before the US District Court in Delaware on December 9, 2019

The paperwork also notes Biden’s name in the 'bill to' section. However, Fox had not verified if the signature was actually Biden’s.

Other obtained documents include FBI paper work that reveals the bureau’s interactions with the shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac, who reported the laptop’s contents to authorities.

That document shows that Isaac received a subpoena to testify before the US District Court in Delaware on December 9, 2019.

One page appears to show the serial number for a laptop and hard drive that were seized.

The FBI and Delaware’s US Attorney’s office have declined to publicly comment on the incident.

Hunter Biden’s international business deals fell into the spotlight once again last week following the new report.

One e-mail from the computer dated May 13, 2017 discusses 'remuneration packages' for six people in a business deal with the now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.

The e-mail appeared to identify Hunter Biden as 'Chair/Vice Chair depending on the agreement with CEFC'.

The e-mail also states that 'Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate'.

It also proposed equity split differences including '20' for 'H' and '10 held by H for the big guy?' with no further elaboration.

Sources claim that 'the big guy' is a reference to Joe Biden.

Fox News spoke to one of the people copied on the e-mail who confirmed its authenticity.

However, the Biden campaign has denied that the former Vice President committed any offense.

'Investigations by the press, during impeachment, and even by two Republican-led Senate committees whose work was decried as "not legitimate" and political by a GOP colleague have all reached the same conclusion: that Joe Biden carried out official U.S. policy toward Ukraine and engaged in no wrongdoing. Trump administration officials have attested to these facts under oath,' Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.

Still, Trump has continued to weaponize the alleged emails against Biden ahead of the November election.  

Trump's campaign vehemently objected to news that his final debate against Joe Biden will feature a mute button, but added that the president would still be in attendance.

Part of that reason, according to campaign manager Bill Stepien, is to question Joe Biden his son's alleged emails and his oveseas dealings.  

'President Trump is committed to debating Joe Biden regardless of last-minute rule changes from the biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favored candidate.

The statement then diverted from the debate itself to talking points about Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's youngest son and the subject of reignited attacks from Trump's camp. 

'This was supposed to be the foreign policy debate, so the President still looks forward to forcing Biden to answer the number one relevant question of whether he’s been compromised by the Communist Party of China.

'Why did Biden allow his son Hunter to sell access to him while he was vice president, and why were there Chinese payment arrangements for Joe himself worked out by Hunter and his sketchy partners? If the media won’t ask Joe Biden these questions, the President will, and there will be no escape for Biden.'