NBC has news about Republicans’ October surprise. Some newer, bluer scandal regarding Hunter Biden was supposed to derail Joe Biden’s election. Something to go viral across the internet and light up Fox News chyrons. Documents leaked from son Hunter’s laptop and a secret “intelligence report” or some such. Well, shucks and gol-ly:
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.
Aspen is even less substantial than the Trump Foundation. Balding claims a Hong Kong-based tabloid, Apple Daily, commissioned the work.
Balding also promoted the document on podcasts produced by Steve Bannon and The Epoch Times. It flowed across the right-wing web, through Facebook and Twitter and “hyperpartisan and conspiracy sites like ZeroHedge and WorldNetDaily.”
Disinformation researchers told NBC the image of Aspen on the Typhoon Investigations website made them immediately suspicious. His profile photo bore hallmarks of being computer-generated. Aspen’s Facebook page created in August contained pictures of his “new house” (appropriated from TripAdvisor). Typhoon’s logo “was lifted from the Taiwan Fact-Checking Center, a digital literacy nonprofit.” Aspen’s Linked-In page claims he worked at Swiss Security Solutions from 2016 to 2020. They’ve never heard of him, he does not appear to exist in Switzerland, and he’s not the first fake account to claim having worked at Swiss Security Solutions, the company finds.
NBC’s Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny add:
Computer-generated faces have become a staple of large-scale disinformation operations in the run-up to the election. In December, Facebook took down a network of fake accounts using computer-created faces tied to The Epoch Times. Facebook removed over 600 accounts tied to the operation, which pushed pro-Trump messages and even served as moderators of some Facebook groups. Stephen Gregory, publisher of the U.S. editions of The Epoch Times, has denied any connection to the accounts.
Last month, Facebook removed another batch of computer-generated profiles originating in China and the Philippines, some of which made anti-Trump posts.
Using a stock photo immediately flags an account as fake. Using an AI-generated image ensures the “person” in question will not appear elsewhere on the internet, i.e., also fake.
Tucker Carlson is posthumorously dropping his story of allegedly damning Hunter Biden documents shipped to him and disappeared by “nefarious plot by Deep State actors,” Daily Beast reports. The documents have been found. Carlson had copies all along. Carlson dropped his Biden story hours after NBC News published its story. Now, says Carlson, he doesn’t want to pile on. That’s “something we don’t want to be involved in.”
Fresh off being punked in the new “Borat” film, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani is “still moving down the conservative media food chain, looking for takers” of alleged “damning information” lifted from Hunter Biden’s alleged “laptop from hell,” reports Politico:
“I think we’re seeing a tactic of something like flooding the zone,” said Chris Looft, the senior editor of First Draft, a nonprofit that works to combat disinformation. “And it could be backfiring, in that all of these leads are circulating, but none of them are really getting all the attention that would be required for an outlet like The Wall Street Journal to give them any attention.”
What is receiving attention is yet another obstruction of justice effort by Trump exposed in the New York Times. This time involving Attorney General Bill Barr. Barr (allegedly at Trump’s request) interfered in ongoing federal prosecutions of Turkish nationals tied to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan needed a favor. Trump was eager to oblige a fellow autocrat from a country where he has business ties. “Barr is being very quiet right now, perhaps realizing that Trump is going to lose and he’s going to be hung out to dry. If so, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” Digby wrote Thursday.
On top of having no shame, no scruples, and no regard for the rule of law, Trump and his hangers-on have no self-respect.
They say animals can smell fear. Man is an animal. Can you smell it?