Pro-Trump Media Parrots P.I. From Casey Anthony Case to Smear Hunter Biden
Florida private investigator Dominic Casey likes to portray himself as a sleuth who’s uncovered wrongdoing of global proportions.
On his website, Casey claims that he runs a “Confidential Private Investigative Agency” for “the royals”—he doesn’t make clear which ones exactly—and that he’s uncovered proof that the Trump administration’s “Anonymous” op-ed writer is none other than former president Bill Clinton. And he played a bit role in the Casey Anthony murder case, claiming that he used a tip from a psychic to find the place where her daughter Caylee was buried.
Casey has failed to prove his off-the-wall claims. And now, thanks to some equally wild allegations he’s making against former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, Casey has become a star with pro-Trump media.
Since December, Trump media allies like Fox News, One America News and the Sinclair Broadcast Group have seized on Casey’s attention-getting allegations about Hunter Biden, portraying them as credible claims made in court. But the stories about Casey’s allegations often fail to mention Casey’s bizarre conspiratorial beliefs—or that he’s inserted himself into a high-profile case before.
Casey didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Casey has been attempting to intervene as a third party in Hunter Biden’s Arkansas paternity dispute with former Washington, D.C., stripper Lunden Roberts. Casey, who didn’t work in the case for either the Biden or Roberts side, filed a document in December alleging that Hunter is the target of multiple criminal probes looking into a $156 million international counterfeiting ring. Casey claimed he had bank records proving that Biden was concealing the money in hidden bank accounts.
Casey couldn’t substantiate his allegations, or even explain what any of that would have to do with whether Biden is the father of Roberts’ son. But conservative outlets seized on Casey’s claims about Biden, even though he refused to discuss where he had found the supposed documents or who, if anyone, he was working for.
“Hunter Biden is subject of criminal probes, says PI firm hinting at more incriminating details,” declared Fox News.
One America News, an upstart cable channel and Fox competitor, dedicated an entire segment to Casey’s claims.
"Documents show Biden may have earned up to $156 million dollars in proceeds of Ukraine corruption," OAN reporter Kristian Rouiz said in the story.
Fox News and OAN didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Biden’s attorneys denied all of Casey’s allegations. But they were still picked up by the New York Post, local TV stations owned by conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group, and the website of mega-popular talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.
None of those stories mentioned that Casey’s website is filled with incomprehensible conspiracy theorizing, like his allegation that actors Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman teamed up with CNN anchor Jake Tapper to become “Propaganda Actors for Netflix,” a nonsensical scheme Casey insists was all part of an attempt to prevent Clinton’s impeachment.
Despite abundant questions about his credibility, Casey’s $156 million figure sank in across the conservative internet and talk radio, already frothing about Biden’s role on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. By Dec. 31, a talk radio host in New Haven, Connecticut, was telling his audience about “this unbelievable story of Hunter Biden and this $156 million counterfeiting scheme that's been uncovered.”
Trump’s Big Lie About Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and Ukraine Falls Apart
This isn’t the first time Casey has made outrageous claims about a news story that was garnering massive media attention. In 2009, he claimed that he had been hired by Jose Baez, the attorney for accused murderer Casey Anthony, to find the remains of Anthony’s 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
Casey insisted that Baez acknowledged Anthony’s guilt (she would later be acquitted) and told him to find Caylee’s body, but not tell the authorities about it. Casey then claimed that he was directed to the place where the body was eventually found with a tip from a psychic. In fact, the body was eventually discovered by a meter reader.
Anthony’s attorney disputed Casey’s allegations at the time, adding that Casey had just volunteered his services as a private investigator and wasn’t on the defense team’s payroll.
Casey resurfaced in the media a few years later, making a filing in Anthony’s 2016 bankruptcy trial alleging that she had exchanged sexual favors with Baez in return for her legal defense.
Like his interventions in Biden’s paternity dispute, Casey’s claims seemed irrelevant to the actual case but they again made national headlines. Baez and Anthony denied Casey’s allegations, accusing Casey of butting into the case to promote his series of self-published books about the Anthony investigation.
Casey’s allegations against Anthony and Baez appear to have been stricken from the case record or sealed, and the judge sanctioned the P.I. after he failed to appear for depositions, ordering him to pay Anthony’s legal fees for those dates.
Despite his history of attention-seeking court filings that fizzle at the slightest scrutiny, conservative media jumped again this month when Casey threw another bomb into Biden’s case. In another filing described as a “notice of identity theft,” Casey claimed, in a hard-to-parse way, that the vice president’s late son Beau has his identity stolen in an attempt to disguise Hunter Biden’s location.
“Hunter Biden linked to 2016 identity theft involving deceased brother,” the Fox Business headline read. Two other Fox stories about Casey did note problems with Casey’s credibility.
Casey’s new allegations were also picked up by the Washington Examiner and The Gateway Pundit, a pro-Trump blog that frequently runs hoaxes. Prominent conservative website Townhall declared that Casey had “revealed Hunter Biden used his older brother, Beau Biden's, death to hide the fact that he checked into a rehab center in Arizona.”
The Arkansas judge handling the paternity suit wasn’t as willing to entertain Casey’s allegations. On Monday, Judge Holly Meyer struck both of Casey’s filings about the counterfeiting ring and the identity claim from the record, threatening the gumshoe with fines or jail time if he continued filing “frivolous pleadings.”
“The author, Dominic Casey and D&A Investigations, Inc., are strongly cautioned not to file frivolous pleadings and is ordered to refrain from future frivolous pleadings or be subject to show cause why they should not be brought before the Court, held in contempt by this Court, and punished by fine, incarceration or both,” Meyer’s order read.
Meyer also ordered the court clerk not to accept future filings from Casey if they appeared to be meant to seek publicity.
Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!
Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
