Hunter Biden laptop controversy

Hunter Biden in 2014

In October 2020, a controversy arose involving data from a laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden. The owner of a Delaware computer shop, John Paul Mac Isaac, said that the laptop had been left by a man who identified himself as Hunter Biden. Mac Isaac also stated that he is legally blind and could not be sure whether the man was actually Hunter Biden.[1] Three weeks before the 2020 United States presidential election, the New York Post published a front-page story that presented emails from the laptop, alleging they showed corruption by Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee and Hunter Biden's father.[2] According to the Post, the story was based on information provided to Rudy Giuliani, the personal attorney of incumbent president and candidate Donald Trump, by Mac Isaac.[1] Forensic analysis later authenticated some of the emails from the laptop, including one of the two emails used by the Post in their initial reporting.[7]

Shortly after the Post story broke, social media companies blocked links to it, while other news outlets declined to publish the story due to concerns about provenance and suspicions of Russian disinformation.[8] By May 2023, no evidence had publicly surfaced to support suspicions that the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation scheme.[9][10]

In December 2019, under the authority of a subpoena issued by a Wilmington grand jury, the FBI seized the laptop from Mac Isaac.[1][11][12] FBI investigators handling Hunter Biden's laptop quickly concluded in 2019 "that the laptop was genuinely his and did not seem to have been tampered with or manipulated".[13][14] In June 2024, federal prosecutors utilized the laptop as evidence as part of a criminal case against Hunter Biden, alongside testimony from an FBI agent involved in authenticating and investigating the laptop.[15]

The hard drive data had been shared with Trump advisor Steve Bannon before it became publicly known.[1] Trump attempted to turn the story into an October surprise to hurt Joe Biden's campaign by falsely alleging that, while in office, Biden had acted corruptly regarding Ukraine to protect his son.[16][17][18] A joint investigation by two Republican Senate committees released in September 2020 and a Republican House Oversight committee investigation released in April 2024 did not find wrongdoing by Joe Biden with regard to Ukraine and his son's business dealings there.[24] PolitiFact wrote in June 2021 that the laptop did belong to Hunter Biden, but did not demonstrate wrongdoing by Joe Biden.[25]

Starting in 2021, news outlets began to authenticate some of the contents of the laptop. In 2021, Politico verified two key emails used in the Post's initial reporting by cross-referencing emails with other datasets and contacting their recipients. CBS News published a forensic analysis which examined a "clean" copy of the data obtained directly from Mac Isaac. It concluded that the "clean" data, including over 120,000 emails, originated with Hunter Biden and had not been altered, while other copies circulated by Republican operatives "could have been tampered with". Other outlets also verified portions of the data, while noting problems in fully authenticating the copies they had to work with.[5][4][3]

  1. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference Goldman_10/22/2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference MSN was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b "POLITICO Playbook: Double trouble for Biden". Politico. September 21, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Herridge, Catherine; Kates, Graham (November 21, 2022). "Copy of what's believed to be Hunter Biden's laptop data turned over by repair shop to FBI showed no tampering, analysis says". CBS News. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  5. ^ a b Timberg, Craig; Viser, Matt; Hamburger, Tom (March 30, 2022). "Here's how The Post analyzed Hunter Biden's laptop". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 31, 2022. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
  6. ^ Schreckinger, B. (November 5, 2023). "Fresh revelations contradict Joe Biden's sweeping denials on Hunter". Politico.
  7. ^ [3] [4] [5] [6].
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference wapoMarch18 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Prokop, Andrew (March 25, 2022). "The return of Hunter Biden's laptop". Vox.
  10. ^ Broadwater, Luke (May 16, 2023). "Officials Who Cast Doubt on Hunter Biden Laptop Face Questions". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 23, 2024.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Benner_Vogel_Schmidt_3/16/2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Goldman_Benner_Vogel_8/13/2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Barrett, Devlin; Viser, Matt (June 23, 2023). "Whistleblower accounts show Hunter Biden's laptop had little role in IRS probe". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 23, 2024.
  14. ^ Stanage, Niall (June 29, 2023). "The latest Hunter Biden controversy, explained". The Hill. Retrieved June 7, 2024. Twitter, in its pre-Elon Musk era, controversially blocked users from sharing a New York Post story on the laptop. But, according to Shapley, the FBI had determined long before that — in November 2019 — that the laptop was authentic.
  15. ^ "Prosecutors introduce infamous laptop as evidence". ABC. June 4, 2024.
  16. ^ Padden, Brian (October 28, 2020). "Trump Campaign Focuses on Hunter Biden Emails as "October Surprise"". Voice Of America. Archived from the original on April 26, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  17. ^ Alba, Davey (October 29, 2019). "Debunking 4 Viral Rumors About the Bidens and Ukraine". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  18. ^ Kessler, Glenn (September 27, 2019). "A quick guide to Trump's false claims about Ukraine and the Bidens". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  19. ^ Fandos, Nicholas (November 7, 2020). "Republican Inquiry Finds No Evidence of Wrongdoing by Biden". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 23, 2024.
  20. ^ Demirjian, Karoun (July 4, 2023). "Republicans Are Divided on Impeaching Biden as Panel Begins New Inquiry". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 23, 2024. But that panel has yet to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Biden despite months of scrutiny and the frequent public claims by top Republicans that he has engaged in corrupt and potentially criminal behavior.
  21. ^ Stein, Perry; Barrett, Devlin; Viser, Matt (August 17, 2023). "How a fight over immunity unraveled Hunter Biden's plea deal". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 23, 2024. Republicans conducting their own investigations on Capitol Hill have not presented evidence linking President Biden to any wrongdoing.
  22. ^ Otten, Tori (September 12, 2023). "McCarthy Plans Biden Impeachment Inquiry—With No Evidence and Not Enough Votes". The New Republic.
  23. ^ Grayer, Annie (April 15, 2024). "White House declines invite for Biden to testify in House Oversight impeachment inquiry". CNN. House Republicans have not uncovered evidence of wrongdoing by the president and currently do not have the votes in the House to impeach him given their narrow, divided majority
  24. ^ [19] [20] [21] [22] [23].
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference Drobnic was invoked but never defined (see the help page).