Catherine Herridge says she found declassified records referencing Chinese blackmail efforts prepared for the President's Daily Brief — a claim whose quotes are accurately reported but whose conclusion that the blackmail "probably" targeted the Biden family remains her own inference, uncorroborated by any independent reporting.
The veteran investigative journalist made the remarks during an appearance on NewsNation's "Katie Pavlich Tonight," discussing declassified materials related to China's 2020 election influence operations. The segment follows President Trump's primetime address last week announcing newly declassified intelligence detailing China's compromise of U.S. voter data and the intelligence community's efforts to bury it.
"I found these records which are talking about blackmail by China," Herridge said. "It was for President Biden's daily brief. I can conclude, I think, that it was probably about targeting his family."
I can conclude, I think, that it was probably about targeting his family.
Herridge accused legacy media of deliberate avoidance, saying that "in the media or legacy media there was kind of a willful blindness. They didn't want to look at the records. All you had to do was spend a couple of hours."
Herridge, an Emmy-winning investigative reporter, previously pursued stories on the Hunter Biden laptop and Biden family foreign business dealings — reporting that put her at odds with CBS leadership and the broader media consensus. CBS laid her off in February 2024 and seized her reporting files, including materials involving confidential sources. Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Herridge described the seizure in stark terms: "When my records were seized I felt it was a journalistic rape." She called it "an attack on investigative journalism" and said CBS "crossed a red line that I believe should never be crossed by any media organization." The network returned the files under pressure from the committee and her union.
During the 2020 campaign, the Biden team labeled her a "partisan, rightwing hack."
The broader Biden family financial picture is more firmly documented. House Oversight Committee investigations led by Chairman James Comer obtained bank records showing CCP-linked money flowing to Biden family members. Comer said the documents showed family members "attempted to sell access & influence around the world." A subsequent memorandum detailed more than $10 million in foreign money linked to Biden family members and associates, including previously undisclosed Romanian payments and millions tied to CEFC China Energy and related entities.
IRS whistleblowers provided additional detail on Joe Biden's proximity to Hunter Biden's China deals. In one text message to a Chinese businessman, Hunter wrote that he was "sitting here with my father" and demanded fulfillment of a financial commitment, warning of consequences involving "the man sitting next to me." Business associate Rob Walker told the FBI that Joe Biden had stopped by a CEFC-related lunch at Hunter's request to bolster the deal. Whistleblowers described DOJ restrictions that limited questions about "the big guy" or "dad," blocked certain warrants on optics grounds, and produced a far softer outcome than the felony charges the IRS had recommended — covering "$2.2 million in unreported tax on global income...from Ukraine, Romania, and China."
Investigative journalist Peter Schweizer revealed that Hunter Biden paid for a secret AT&T global "burner" phone used by Joe Biden during his vice presidency. When journalist John Solomon dialed the number, Joe Biden answered before hanging up.
President Trump highlighted the same material in 2023, declaring that "Crooked Joe Biden Is Compromised, Owned By China."
No independent source has confirmed the specific blackmail records Herridge references beyond her own characterization of declassified materials. Her conclusion that the blackmail targeted the Biden family rests on inference, not on any document explicitly naming the family — leaving the question of whether the President's Daily Brief carried a warning about Chinese leverage over the Biden family, or something else entirely, still open.