How a fake persona laid the groundwork for a Hunter Biden conspiracy deluge
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A 64-page document that was later
disseminated by close associates of President Donald Trump appears to be the
work of a fake "intelligence firm."
Hunter Biden speaks at the World
Food Program USA's annual awards ceremony in Washington in April 2016.Paul
Morigi / Getty Images file
Oct. 29, 2020, 9:30 PM
WET / Updated Oct. 30, 2020, 3:19 PM WET
By Ben
Collins and Brandy Zadrozny
One month before a purported leak
of files from Hunter Biden's laptop, a fake "intelligence" document
about him went viral on the right-wing internet, asserting an elaborate
conspiracy theory involving former Vice President Joe Biden's son and business
in China.
The document, a 64-page
composition that was later disseminated by close associates of President Donald
Trump, appears to be the work of a fake "intelligence firm" called
Typhoon Investigations, according to researchers and public documents.
The author of the document, a
self-identified Swiss security analyst named Martin Aspen, is a fabricated
identity, according to analysis by disinformation researchers, who also
concluded that Aspen's profile picture was created with an artificial intelligence
face generator. The intelligence firm that Aspen lists as his previous employer
said that no one by that name had ever worked for the company and that no one
by that name lives in Switzerland, according to public records and social media
searches.
One of the original posters of the document, a blogger and professor named Christopher Balding, took credit for writing parts of it when asked about it and said Aspen does not exist.
Despite the document's questionable authorship and anonymous sourcing, its claims that Hunter Biden has a problematic connection to the Communist Party of China have been used by people who oppose the Chinese government, as well as by far-right influencers, to baselessly accuse candidate Joe Biden of being beholden to the Chinese government.
Inside the false conspiracy theory
being pushed about the Bidens
OCT. 23, 202004:43
The document and its spread have
become part of a wider effort to smear Hunter Biden and weaken Joe Biden's
presidential campaign, which moved from the fringes of the internet to more
mainstream conservative news outlets.
An unverified leak of documents —
including salacious pictures from what President Donald Trump's personal
attorney Rudy Giuliani and a Delaware Apple repair store owner claimed to be
Hunter Biden's hard drive — were published in the New York Post on Oct. 14. Associates
close to Trump, including Giuliani and former White House chief strategist
Steve Bannon, have promised more blockbuster leaks and secrets, which have yet
to materialize.
The fake intelligence document,
however, preceded the leak by months, and it helped lay the groundwork among
right-wing media for what would become a failed October surprise: a viral
pile-on of conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden.
The Typhoon Investigations
document was first posted in September to Intelligence Quarterly, an anonymous
blog "dedicated to collecting important daily news," according to its
"about" section. Historical domain records show the blog was registered
to Albert Marko, a self-described political and economic adviser, who also
lists the blog on his Twitter bio. When asked about the provenance of the
document, Marko said he received it from Balding.
Balding, previously an associate
professor at Fulbright University Vietnam who studied the Chinese economy and
financial markets, posted the document on his blog on Oct. 22, seven weeks
after it was initially published.
"I had really not wanted to
do this but roughly 2 months ago I was handed a report about Biden activities
in China the press has simply refused to cover. I want to strongly emphasize I
did not write the report but I know who did," Balding said in an email.
Balding later claimed to NBC News
that he wrote some of the document.
"I authored small parts of
the report and was involved in report preparation and review. As a researcher,
and due to the understandable worry about foreign disinformation, it was
paramount that the report document activity from acknowledged and public
sources," Balding said. "Great care was taken to document, cite, and
retain information so that acknowledged facts could be placed in the public
domain."
A viral dossier about Hunter
Biden was written by "Martin Aspen," a fake identity whose profile
picture was created by artificial intelligence.
TyphoonInvesti1
/ via Twitter
/https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2021/09/25/huawei-executive-meng-wanzhou-receives-warm-welcome-upon-return-to-china/_1_meng_wanzhou_2.jpg)
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