media use of Trump disinformation during impeachment trial

A campaign memo warns against the spread of "malicious and conclusively debunked" theories about the Bidens by Trump allies.

Vice President Joe Biden's campaign is issuing a pre-emptive strike, sending an unusual open memo to the media warning against disinformation pushed by the president and his defenders.

The memo, first obtained by NBC News, is also a shot across the bow of Republican senators as they consider whether to entertain Trump's demands to call Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son, as a witness in the trial.

Trump's attempts to withhold nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine while pressing it to investigate Joe Biden, a chief political rival, led Trump to become the third president to be impeached by the House of Representatives.

Among the issues addressed in the memo is the past targeting of Biden's attempt as vice president to sideline Viktor Shokin, a Russia-aligned Ukrainian prosecutor general, at a time when Biden's son served on the board of Burisma, an energy company in Ukraine.

Trump has been "spreading a malicious and conclusively debunked conspiracy theory" that "Biden engaged in wrongdoing when he executed official United States policy to remove a corrupt prosecutor from office," the campaign said in the memo sent by Biden's deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, and a senior adviser, Tony Blinken.

Current and former administration officials testified during the House impeachment investigation that while Hunter Biden's role on the board of Burisma presented the potential for the appearance of a conflict of interest given his father's position, Shokin's ouster was a key priority of the Obama administration and the international community.

In its first forceful pushback since impeachment proceedings began, the Biden campaign is demanding that "any media organization referencing, reporting on, or repeating these claims" from Trump and his allies "must state clearly and unambiguously that they have been discredited and debunked by authoritative sources."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/biden-campaign-warns-against-media-use-trump-disinformation-during-impeachment-n1118681