Suspicious: Hunter Biden Pictures

Suzy Woltmann

Politics

14th October 2020

The pictures were released by tabloids (Screenshot).

The Claim

Photos depict Hunter Biden, son of Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden, smoking a crack pipe.

News posted on

Emerging story

On October 14, 2020, the New York Post released an article called “Inside the life of Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s scandal-plagued son.”

The article went on to detail issues that Hunter, Joe Biden’s son, has faced. These include connections to the Ukraine and images of him allegedly smoking a pipe that was described as “a pipe of the type used to smoke crack or marijuana.”

The claim was reposted by many, including U.S. President Donald Trump.

Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar’s investigation found that the claim about the photos is suspicious. The photos were only published in tabloids. We conducted reverse image searches on the photos and were not able to find anything about where they originated from. The reverse image search only leads back to content from the tabloid publications.

Joe Biden has been very open about Hunter Biden’s struggles with substance abuse. If the photos are legitimate, they do not show anything that the American public does not know: Hunter Biden has used illicit substances. However, the idea that Twitter has potentially suppressed discussion of the photos has led to much debate about censorship and misinformation leading up to the election.