CBS News went to great lengths to suppress correspondent Catherine Herridge’s reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop just weeks before the 2020 election, the award-winning investigative reporter claimed.
In her bombshell claim, Herridge revealed that she brought evidence to CBS News executive Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews and CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell in early October 2020 that the laptop contained material about “a million dollar retainer from a Chinese energy firm”. along with business texts and emails from the son of Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
But later that month, Herridge wrote that she was shocked to see “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl say the laptop “couldn’t be verified” during a tense interview with then-President Donald Trump.
“As I watched the broadcast, I felt sick,” Herridge, who was controversially fired from the Tiffany Network in February, wrote Sunday night in her recently released newsletter.
“I knew the laptop data could be verified and confirmed.”
She added that she was surprised that “60 Minutes” — which was criticized last month for editing comments allegedly made by Vice President Kamala Harris to avoid a “word salad” response about the conflict in the Middle East — did not had worked with the news division. to confirm her reporting.
There was such a “separation” between the two subjects, she said.
Ten days after Stahl’s segment aired, she was contacted by Ciprian-Matthews asking if she had “confirmed reporting” on Hunter Biden’s story on O’Donnell’s broadcast.
Herridge assured the executive that her extensive reporting included “working the phones, contacting people on Hunter Biden’s emails for corroboration and cross-referencing court records.”
“I told Ciprian-Matthews that the verified materials included a million dollar retainer from a Chinese energy firm, emails with Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski, as well as Hunter Biden text messages,” she said.
“Asked by Ciprian-Matthews if there was a ‘hunter connection,’ I replied, ‘Yes, all of them,'” she wrote.
Herridge said she then gave some of the verified data directly to Ciprian-Matthews.
But her report was never broadcast.
“I don’t know at this point what happened,” Herridge said.
The reporter noted that based on her experience at the network, she found it strange that CBS News did not charge the investigative unit in October 2020 to develop more reporting on the laptop.
“This would have been standard practice,” Herridge wrote.
The Post was the only mainstream publication to report at the time that the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden — leading to the story being shut down by social media giant Facebook
It took an additional two years for CBS to air a forensic review of the Hunter Biden laptop data. By then, Ciprian-Matthews had risen to the role of president of CBS News.
Herridge said she continued to defend her report on the laptop, which “determined that both records belonged to Hunter Biden and were not tampered with.”
“Our report was broadcast in November 2022, after the midterm elections,” Herridge said.
The Post reached out to CBS News for comment.
Herridge was ousted earlier this year amid major cutbacks at the network and parent company Paramount Global. CBS News captured Herridge’s reporting materials after her termination.
Sources close to the situation claimed that the decision to keep her files was made by Ciprian-Matthews. The files were returned days later amid pressure from the union representing Herridge.
Earlier this year, The Post revealed that Ciprian-Matthews was accused of bypassing white reporters and blocking Herridge’s reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop.
The executive abruptly resigned in August and moved into the role of senior adviser covering the 2024 presidential election earlier. She will leave the company after the election.
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