Trump to blame for Hunter Biden 'revenge' campaign that could cost Fox News: D.C. insider

Hunter Biden has escalated his legal battle against Fox News for publishing intimate photos and reporting he had taken illegal bribes, and MSNBC's Claire McCaskill said Donald Trump was ultimately to blame for the network's coverage.

Lawyers for President Joe Biden's son plan to sue the network "imminently," according to a letter sent to Fox News demanding retractions, corrections and other remedies, and "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski suggested the conservative network had published and broadcast what amounted to revenge porn.

"I think that Fox lawyers will have to look at what exactly they're accusing them of and whether it merits defamation," Brzezinski said. "Also, as it pertains to the nude photos of Hunter Biden when he was going through a drug addiction and other very difficult mental health challenges in his life, something that he's written about in his book and he owns and admits to, I guess revenge porn is now a thing that can hold up in court."

"But it seems to me that Fox News has a decision to make," Brzezinski added. "I'll just say, on a human level, when you put a person in a position where they have nothing left to lose, where you humiliate them to the point where they're like, you know what – you keep lying about me, now you're putting these pictures out of me, you're enjoying this. It's time. You get to the point then, you have someone who is willing to go to the mat. That's where it looks like Hunter Biden is headed."

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McCaskill, a former prosecutor, agreed it was smart for Hunter Biden to ask for retractions before filing a defamation claim, which she said would be complicated by his status as the sitting president's son.

"It's a complicated legal issue because they have to determine whether Hunter Biden is a public figure," McCaskill said. "There's a different set of rules for people who are public figures versus strictly private citizens. A defamation case is much more difficult if you are a public figure. I will say this, this is all part of a problem that Trump has really added to. We were all shocked listening to the testimony, reading the testimony of David Pecker, when he actually talked in very plain and simple terms about how the National Enquirer buried stories, how they paid people for stories that they then decided not to report, or how they were part of a political operation to smear political opponents."

"We were all shocked at that because, even though everybody kind of knew it about the National Enquirer," McCaskill added, "it was hard to hear it out loud if you are part of a news organization that takes their responsibility seriously. People need to understand Trump convinced about half the country that this is what all journalism is, that every outlet of journalism is made up, that it is all about trying to help somebody or hurt somebody, not reporting the facts. So this is really what Trump has done. Fox has been under that umbrella now for a long time, even though it cost them close to a billion dollars. It is going to be very interesting to see whether they do the business prudent thing, which is to say, hey, we went too far and got it wrong, or whether they decide to open the checkbook again, if for nothing else, a very expensive legal proceeding."

In a statement, a spokesperson for Fox News said, “Hunter Biden’s lawyers have belatedly chosen to publicly attack Fox News’ constitutionally protected coverage regarding their client. Mr. Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of investigations by both the Department of Justice and Congress, has been indicted by two different U.S. Attorney’s Offices in California and Delaware, and has admitted to multiple incidents of wrongdoing."

"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.”

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