CNN reports on Biden family's shady business dealings over two years after NY Post, gets panned by critics

Over two years after the New York Post first shed light on the Biden family's shady business dealings, CNN finally ran its own report about the questionable ethics surrounding the president.

As President Biden is engulfed in scandal with the ongoing special counsel investigation into his mishandling of classified documents, CNN ran the headline, "A famous last name, business deals and a looming probe: Republicans ramp up investigation of Biden family."

The report published Tuesday laid out potential conflicts of interest regarding the president's son Hunter Biden and his brothers James and Frank Biden, who leveraged their close association with the powerful Democrat both during and after the Obama-Biden presidency.

In 2021, Frank Biden assured a group of medical professionals he would do all he can to "get federal dollars" for them while the power of the influence of his brother's "bully pulpit" though he denied he ever took part in any "quid pro quo." CNN also pointed to multiple lawsuits leveled at James Biden, who was accused of fraud after he boasted his relation to the famous politician. 

EX-INTEL OFFICIAL WHO SIGNED HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP LETTER ADMITS SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF EMAILS ‘HAD TO BE REAL’

During an on-air report that aired several times between Tuesday and Wednesday, CNN addressed Biden's assertion that he never spoke with Hunter about his business dealings, pointing to at least one meeting the then-vice president had with Hunter and his business associate, Mexican airline leader Miguel Alemán Magnani. 

CNN's new reporting on old revelations was pummeled by critics on social media.

"It took three reporters to aggregate the NY Post?" National Review social media editor Claude Thompson wondered.

CNN'S BRIAN STELTER FLIP-FLOPS ON HUNTER BIDEN SCANDAL BY SAYING IT'S ‘NOT JUST A RIGHT-WING MEDIA STORY’

"Weird how this went unreported in 2020 when Biden was lying about it even though the facts were known," RealClearInvestigations senior reporter Mark Hemingway tweeted. "What's next? We'll learn Hunter was getting million dollar wire transfers from Russian oligarchs?"

"This story is how many years old now? Why even share CNN," Washington Free Beacon reporter Joe Gabriel Simonson knocked the liberal network.

"Welcome to 2020," Substack writer Jim Treacher quipped.

Critics had a similar attitude towards media outlets that finally verified the authenticity of Hunter Biden's laptop after the New York Post ran its bombshell reporting during the 2020 presidential election. 

Among news organizations that confirmed the laptop after peddling the discredited Russian disinformation narrative include Politico, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, CNN and CBS News. 

2022: THE YEAR THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP WAS FINALLY VERIFIED BY THE MEDIA

CNN was caught spiking coverage of Hunter Biden's laptop during the 2020 election, according to leaked audio tapes obtained by Project Veritas in December 2020. 

"Obviously, we're not going with the New York Post story right now on Hunter Biden," CNN political director David Chalian said during a conference call on Oct. 14, the same day the New York Post published its first story on Hunter Biden's emails. Chalian later insisted the report was "giving its marching orders" to the "right-wing echo chamber about what to talk about today."

"The Trump media, you know, moves immediately from – OK, well, never mind – the [Michael Flynn] unmasking was, you know, found to be completely nonsensical to the latest alleged scandal and expects everybody to just follow suit," then-CNN president Jeff Zucker told his staff on Oct. 16. "So, I don't think that we should be repeating unsubstantiated smears just because the right-wing media suggests that we should."

CNN had several on-air personalities that dismissed the brewing controversies at the time. 

"There's a lot about this story that does not add up," CNN's Brian Stelter told his viewers in Oct. 2020. "And, I mean, for all we know, these emails were made up, or maybe some are real and some are fakes, we don't know. But we do know that this is a classic example of the right-wing media machine."

FROM 'SMEAR CAMPAIGN' TO 'RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION,' LIBERAL MEDIA TEAMED UP TO DISMISS HUNTER BIDEN STORY

After complaining about the coverage of the emerging scandal that was virtually ignored by the liberal media, Stelter went on to call the Post's reporting of Hunter Biden's laptop a "manufactured scandal," a "so-called scandal" and suggested the newspaper is not a "fully reliable source."

Just days before his August firing from CNN, Stelter acknowledged the Hunter Biden scandal is "not just a right-wing media story" and constituted a "real problem for the Bidens." 

Hunter Biden is facing multiple federal investigations for tax crimes and gun registration violations. 

Meanwhile, his father is now being investigated for his possession of classified documents from his tenure as vice president. There is growing speculation whether Hunter Biden had ever been exposed to the sensitive records during his various visits and stays at his father's Wilmington home. 

Supreme Court rejects New York gun retailers' bid to block new concealed carry laws

The Supreme Court rejected a bid by New York gun retailers on Wednesday to block a slew of new gun control laws in the state, which they argued violate their Second Amendment rights and hurt their businesses. 

There were no noted dissents in the order or explanations from the justices for their decision. 

"We are disappointed that not one of the nine justices saw fit to grant the plaintiffs some stay of enforcement of the new laws against them," Paloma Capanna, the lead attorney for the New York gun retailers, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. 

"We are challenging the ability of the state of New York to target dealers in firearms in the lawful stream of commerce, to put them out of business, which is what the new laws will do," Capanna added. "So it really was unfortunate to see that we couldn't get any emergency temporary injunction against those laws." 

New York Attorney General Letitia James praised the Supreme Court's decision on Wednesday, saying that the "gun safety laws help save lives, and keep our state safer."

SEMIAUTOMATIC WEAPONS BAN BECOMES ILLINOIS LAW

Wednesday's order comes one week after the high court rejected a separate bid by gun rights activists to block the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, which was implemented last year by New York's Democrat-controlled legislature. 

New York lawmakers passed that bill after the Supreme Court struck down the state's prior concealed carry in June 2022 in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in that opinion for the Court that "the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home." 

The new law prohibits carrying a gun in "sensitive areas," such as stadiums, houses of worship, museums, parks, and other public places; imposes revised record-keeping and new safety requirements on retailers; and mandates background checks on all ammunition purchases. 

Capanna, the attorney for the gun retailers, argued that new record-keeping laws could amount to an unconstitutional gun registry. 

"The list of new mandatory compliance even goes so far as a turnover of acquisition and disposition records… which the state of New York attorneys have admitted will be used to create the first ever gun owners registry housed at the New York State Police," Capanna said on Wednesday. 

Multiple challenges to the new law are continuing to play out in lower courts. 

Fox News' Shannon Bream and Bill Mears contributed to this report.