By It’s often the cover up that takes most of the work. Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge has uncovered references to a suspected Chinese blackmail operation apparently targeting the Biden family inside intelligence records prepared for the president’s daily briefing.
The documents were sitting in plain sight after being declassified, but the media apparently could not be bothered to read them.
Appearing on NewsNation’s “Katie Pavlich Tonight,” Herridge held up copies of the records and accused legacy news organizations of displaying “willful blindness” toward potentially explosive intelligence involving China, the Biden family and the 2020 presidential election.
BOMBSHELL 🚨 Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge says she found evidence that Joe Biden’s family was being blackmailed by China (and shows the documents) and our mainstream media ignored the evidence
“What we saw in the release of the records, which I'm afraid I think in… pic.twitter.com/FJe5dYBL6g
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) July 25, 2026
“All you had to do was spend a couple of hours. I found these records which are talking about blackmail by China. It was for President Biden’s daily brief,” Herridge said. “I can conclude, I think, that it was probably about targeting his family.”
The blackmail reference adds a troubling new dimension to the growing collection of declassified records showing that American intelligence officials possessed significant information about Chinese influence operations but sometimes softened, restricted or withheld that information rather than connecting it directly to the 2020 election.
One November 20, 2020, email released in the files discussed a pending President’s Daily Brief concerning Chinese activity. An intelligence official wrote that the National Security Agency had “deliberately massaged” the assessment “to avoid any direct links to the election.”
Another official expressed disbelief that the intelligence would not be tied explicitly to Beijing’s election activity, writing: “The mind boggles.”
The newly released records portray China’s operation as far broader than conventional election interference. Beijing allegedly employed a “multi-domain” strategy involving diplomacy, trade, cyber operations, open-source information, social media and the collection of sensitive personal data.
President Donald Trump cited the documents during a July 16 address announcing investigations into why China-related intelligence was allegedly withheld from him and the public. The White House said the records showed foreign election interference and deliberate suppression by intelligence officials, although China has denied the accusations.
Herridge’s discovery raises the possibility that China was not merely seeking to influence American voters. Intelligence officials may also have been concerned that Beijing possessed information capable of pressuring the family of the man who would soon become president.
That concern would not have emerged in a vacuum.
Hunter Biden developed lucrative relationships with Chinese companies and businessmen while his father served as vice president and afterward. House investigators later documented millions of dollars flowing through companies and accounts associated with Biden family members and their business partners.
In one transaction highlighted by House Oversight Committee investigators, money originating with the Chinese energy company CEFC allegedly moved through several entities before a $40,000 check reached Joe Biden. Committee Chairman James Comer described the payment as “laundered China money,” while Democrats and the Biden family maintained that the check was repayment for a personal loan.
Other congressional investigators have said the FBI possessed “significant, impactful and voluminous evidence” concerning potential criminal activity in the Biden family’s foreign business arrangements.
New Conservative Post has repeatedly documented the relationships that made the intelligence community’s apparent blackmail concern particularly serious.
Photographs released by congressional investigators showed Hunter Biden meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping and Joe Biden interacting with Hunter’s Chinese business associates during an official trip to Beijing. Shortly after that trip, the Chinese-backed investment firm BHR Partners was formally registered. Hunter Biden later described the trip as an important moment in the development of his business relationships.
Joe Biden repeatedly denied involvement in his son’s foreign business dealings, but his public defense narrowed as additional evidence emerged.
The claim that he never discussed business with Hunter eventually became a claim that he was not “in business” with his son. Testimony and records subsequently showed that the elder Biden attended dinners, participated in telephone calls and met several of the foreign figures paying Hunter and his associates.
As NCP previously reported, bank records released by House investigators detailed payments involving Chinese, Russian, Kazakh and Ukrainian interests. Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer also testified that Joe Biden was placed on speakerphone during numerous conversations with Hunter’s associates and that the Biden name functioned as “the brand” being sold.
A former Obama administration stenographer separately alleged that Joe Biden used official travel and American foreign policy to assist interests connected to Hunter’s work in Ukraine. The FBI reportedly showed little interest in interviewing him despite his offer to testify under oath.
None of those facts by themselves proves that China successfully blackmailed Joe Biden or altered American policy.
They do, however, explain why an intelligence assessment mentioning Chinese blackmail and apparently referencing the Biden family should receive immediate scrutiny from Congress, the intelligence community and the press.
Instead, the same media institutions that spent years dismissing concerns about Hunter Biden’s laptop and foreign business relationships have largely ignored Herridge’s discovery.
Herridge argued that withholding politically sensitive intelligence does not merely protect officials from uncomfortable headlines. It leaves presidents unable to make decisions with complete information and potentially exposes the country to foreign leverage.
“When you don’t get that information to the senior decision-makers,” Herridge said, “ultimately the United States and the American people are the losers.”
The newly released files do not yet establish precisely what information China possessed, which Biden family members may have been targeted or whether Beijing attempted to use the material to influence American policy.
Those are the questions the media should be asking.
Its silence may be part of the story.
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