Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, interviewed veteran Washington reporter and editor John Solomon about the stories he broke about corruption in Ukraine, many of them involving the Biden family, for The Hill newspaper.
Although there was a newsroom protest against Solomon, who as a news columnist had more latitude than staff reporters, an editorial review of his articles showed that all of them were factual.
Solomon said his reporting on Ukraine and the Biden Family began in late 2018 with a tip from someone inside the FBI, then documents that gave him, in effect, a road map, along with the information that Hunter Biden was under investigation.
TRANSCRIPT
McCabe: Veteran Washington Reporter John Solomon broke several stories about the corruption in Ukraine, writing as a news columnist for The Hill newspaper.
Solomon told The Star News Network that despite the newsroom mutiny, an editorial review of his columns by the paper has validated them as factual.
Solomon: I write most of the main story over the Christmas holidays of 2018 and early 2019. My bosses know it’s coming at The Hill.
McCabe: Solomon said he was working on the Russian collusion story when he was tipped off about Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine.
Solomon: I can tell you something I haven’t been able to tell people in the past because I didn’t really get a source release for this until recently.
But the narrative has always been that somehow Rudy Giuliani gave me this stuff and I just took Rudy Giuliani’s playbook and ran with it. That is not true.
McCabe: Solomon said his actual sourcing was from the FBI.
Solomon: It’s December of 2018, and I get a call from somebody who says there’s a group of FBI agents that want to communicate with you. Something about Russian collusion and advance your story significantly.
You have to do the groundwork, which you have a roadmap, but there’s a whole other thing going on. There is something involving Joe Biden’s son you need to know about.
You’re going to get a package that’s going to be delivered at the front door, take your notes off of it, shred the package and then go with it.
McCabe: Then the drop was made.
Solomon: And so I get this document that clearly has very sensitive information that only the FBI would know about, including the fact that in December of 2018, Hunter Biden was already under criminal investigation.
McCabe: The editor-in-chief of Just the News said throughout his career, he has worked to get the story right, even if he was not first. In the end, The Hill validated his reporting, and so will history.
Solomon: This is something I normally do now, and we do it here at Just the News. Now, we even created a special tab for it called ‘digging.’ I always put my entire reporter’s notebook out there for people to see.
I’ve never been arrogant enough to believe that someone should just trust me because I say it so. So we always sticky up, and I did it at The Hill with my stories. Every fact is attributed to something.
McCabe: Reporting for The Star News Network: Neil W. McCabe, Washington.
