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I'm asking about your belief falsification.
And I'm asking about yours. I would find his story less credible if those things were true, mostly the latter. Whether I ceased to find it credible at all would depend on the precise details. But it doesn't really take an eyewitness to guess who the "big guy" is supposed to be, and no one of whom I'm aware has suggested an alternate candidate (or even publicly denied that "the big guy" refers to Joe).
Your turn.
Well I don't know Bobulinski and presumably neither do you, so I'm wondering why exactly you find him to be credible. One possible explanation is that Bobulinski is apparently still very upset with Jim and Hunter Biden over a deal he missed out on. He said himself the two brothers "defrauded" him of at least $5 million. This seems like good evidence he's at least partly motivated by payback. The Hunter Laptop saga hasn't really delivered and people lost interest over the years, which means right-wing pundits like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity are especially excited to herald Bobulinski with a moment in the spotlight. It doesn't matter if all that Bobulinski has is uncorroborated gossip, they know they can shore up ratings by resurrecting a dead story on a political figure their audience loathes.
Do you agree with or find any part of this argument persuasive?
You didn't answer the first question in the reply before last.
I don't think that I've ever personally known someone quoted in a major news story, so I don't see why my (non)acquaintance with him is relevant. Do you adopt a default of distrust toward public statements in the news? I can't say that I would have guessed that from reading your posts. (Do you personally know James Gilliar, who for all I know retained a profitable business association, or at least good and close social relations, with Hunter and Jim at the time of the statement you quoted?)
Maybe so. That's something to take into account. However, I'd note that the very article you link shows a picture of Bobulinski's personal text messages from James Gilliar, the same guy you quoted to say Joe wasn't involved in any of Hunter's dealings, explicitly instructing Bobulinski not to tell anyone that Joe is involved except in face-to-face meetings! Does this in turn hurt your trust in Gilliar at all?
Isn't that the exact claim under dispute here?
But he said that Joe Biden was "the big guy" within a week or two of the laptop story dropping. It's not like he's just now come out with new revelations to extend his 15 minutes.
Well, it's not exactly uncorroborated: he's supposed to be the one corroborating what the emails and texts appear to say, as one of the people copied on (many of) them. Also, the article you yourself linked features photographs of his personal text messages, as I mentioned above, so it's not even true that all he's giving is hearsay.
I agree that his motive for revenge means what he says should be taken with a grain of salt. However, he did sit for an FBI interview on all of this (AFAIK Gilliar did not), so he could very easily go to prison on a felony if he lied (Michael Flynn could tell him how much the FBI enjoys fucking people who slip up even a little in interviews). And presumably he told the FBI the same thing he told the press (his interview was after the October 22nd Washington Examiner story), so that seems like a pretty good assurance of earnestness, even if he turns out to be mistaken. Also, I believe that what he's saying should have been obvious to anyone with eyes to see from the original emails and texts themselves (and the conspicuous non-denials of key specific claims), thus his function for me is more as a bridge for those who lack such eyes than as a lynchpin of the whole story.
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