Hunter Biden

About

Hunter Biden is United States President Joe Biden's second son from his first marriage with Neilia Hunter Biden, born on February 4th, 1970. Hunter Biden has worked as an attorney, lobbyist and businessman with ties to natural gas production in Ukraine. Following the death of his older brother Beau Biden in 2015, Hunter Biden developed a drug habit that has made him the subject of much media attention, scrutiny that was only exacerbated by his father's rise to the Presidency in 2020. Biden has been embroiled in various controversies since the 2020s, including a New York Post exposé that claimed to have unearthed evidence of corruption from Hunter Biden's laptop and hard drives. In 2024, Biden was charged with three counts of illegally possessing a firearm after he lied about his drug use on forms. Since his increase in the media and online discussions in the 2020s, Hunter Biden has become the subject of numerous memes across the internet.

Career

Hunter Biden is the second son of Joe Biden and his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, who died in a car crash along with Hunter's sister when he was two years old in 1972. Hunter and his brother Beau survived the crash, however, Beau died from brain cancer in 2015, following which Hunter developed his drug issues.

Biden worked as a banker, lobbyist and private equity investor before working as an attorney and businessman. Biden has also served on the board of Burisma Holdings, one of Ukraine's largest natural gas producers. After Hunter Biden's term expired in 2019, he and his father Joe Biden became the subject of corruption allegations regarding Biden's work in Ukraine. In the early 2020s, Hunter Biden also became the subject of investigations related to tax evasion and illegal firearm possession.^[1]

Online History

New York Post's Hunter Biden Hard Drive Leak

In 2020, various media outlets reported on information supposedly leaked from Hunter Biden's personal laptop hard drive. On October 14th, 2020, the New York Post published an article titled "Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad," which included several photographs of Biden allegedly sourced from the hard drive, including pictures of Biden shirtless, smoking cigarettes and sleeping with a glass pipe hanging from his mouth (examples shown below).

The report claimed that the hard drive was obtained by a computer repair shop owner, who copied the contents of the computer before handing it over to authorities. The files were later sent to Robert Costello, the lawyer for former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The spread of the New York Post article was exacerbated by news that Facebook and Twitter were limiting the shareability of the story, with some censor teams claiming to safeguard against the potential spread of incorrectly and illegally obtained information. This news led to the Hunter Biden story continuing to spread, possibly due to a Streisand Effect.

Hunter Biden iCloud / iPhone Hack

In 2022, 4chan users claimed to have hacked Hunter Biden's iCloud. On July 9th, 2022, at 2:19 a.m. EST, a KiwiAnon made a thread detailing that they work in IT and had direct, first-hand knowledge of the Hunter Biden laptop that has been in custody for several years.

He claimed that he was being threatened and pushed to be a part of something and that after detailing more information about the iCloud and iPad used by Hunter Biden, he gave a final warning about how he could push a button and send everything to the public (shown below). After posting various screenshots later on in the thread, the password for the iCloud, as well as several links on where and what to do with the information, was posted by the KiwiAnon, and it purportedly unlocked the account.

Memes and reactions surfaced regarding President Joe Biden's imagined response to his son's leak shortly after. For instance, on July 10th, 2022, Twitter / X user edwardrussl used a meme from The Office that showed panic, captioning it, "Live from White House after Hunter Biden leaks." The tweet received roughly 41,200 views and 900 likes in two years (shown below).

Hunter Biden Gun Charges Guilty Verdict

In June 2024, Hunter Biden stood trial for making false statements about drug use on a firearm application form and accused of illegally possessing a firearm for 11 days in October 2018.

Many internet users took amusement at a woman named Zoe Kestan's testimony after she said she met Hunter Biden at a strip club in midtown Manhattan where he played a Fleet Foxes song off his phone while she gave him a lap dance. Kestan said under oath, "I felt really safe around him" (seen below, left).

In the following days, numerous social media users made jokes and memes likening Biden to Jesus. For example, X^[2] user @SirajAHashmi posted a meme on June 11th, 2024, that received over 1.7 million views and 35,000 likes in two days (seen below, right).

Search Interest

External References