No, Hunter Biden did not fund Ukrainian 'bioweapons' labs The Russian Defense Ministry knows how to stir up the interest of the right-leaning news media in the United States — just mention Hunter Biden, the president's son. Russian officials released a complex-looking flow chart with spaghetti lines depicting not only the involvement of Hunter Biden but financier George Soros in the alleged financing of "bioweapons labs." Reporters immediately dug into their copies of Biden's laptop, supposedly left behind for repair in a Delaware shop in April 2019, and dredged up emails that they suggested validated the Russian report. We've previously reported that these are not bioweapons labs, but biological research facilities focused on better detecting, diagnosing and monitoring infectious-disease outbreaks. But this alleged link to Hunter Biden exploded over the Internet. We dug into the records and discussed the deals in question with people involved. The reporting from those news outlets is false. Hunter Biden has come under scrutiny for business deals in places such as Ukraine and China that took place while his father was vice president. But he was not "financing" these labs. In fact, he was not part of a decision to invest in a company at the center of the Russian allegations, he did not profit from it as he was kicked out of the investment firm over cocaine allegations, and the company made little money from its tiny bit of business in Ukraine. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. U.S. taxpayer dollars won't be part of an Iran deal The Biden administration appears to be nearing an agreement to restore the nuclear deal with Iran that was abandoned by the Trump administration. Given the controversy surrounding the deal negotiated by the Obama administration, Republicans are sharpening their criticism of the emerging pact. Eighteen House Republicans sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, saying "the reports of ongoing negotiations with Iran raise serious concerns about why the Administration is willing to engage and provide U.S. taxpayer dollars to a country adverse to America's interest." One lawmaker even claimed in a tweet that Biden would give nearly $100 billion in "taxpayer dollars" to Iran. But this claim — that U.S. taxpayers will end up footing the bill — is really off base. The lawmakers pointed to a line in an article concerning a "$7 billion ransom payment the United States is preparing to pay for the release of four Americans from an Iranian jail." So it's tangent of the nuclear deal. Moreover, the figure refers to Iranian oil sales held (in dollars) in South Korean banks that were originally frozen from Iranian access by U.S. sanctions in 2018 and 2019. So this is actually Iran's money. The author of the article told us it would not be accurate to say these are U.S. taxpayer dollars. The Republicans earned Four Pinocchios. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP and @AdriUsero) or Facebook. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. | 
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