Biden's Laptop: It's real, and it's spectacular

[George K]

Former DNI Director Ratcliffe.

"I confirmed it was legit."

Ratcliffe said, [relevant remarks begin around 1:55] “The New York Post broke that story, but I was the one that verified it. I was the one that said, no, despite what a lot of former intelligence officials are saying and Democratic officials like Adam Schiff are saying, it’s not Russian disinformation. And, unfortunately, what we’ve seen and some of what’s now been talked about in the Twitter files is that there was a suppression, essentially a disinformation campaign on behalf of Joe Biden that involved many people, and as a result, some of that information was suppressed from the American voters, even though, as you correctly point out, Jason, that, as the voice of the intelligence people — or as the voice of the intelligence community, I said that this was not Russian disinformation and yet, there was a suppression of that truth and amplification of a lie that it was Russian disinformation.”

[jon-nyc]

When did he confirm it?

[George K]

@jon-nyc said in Biden's Laptop: It's real, and it's spectacular:

When did he confirm it?

Good question. Do you think he confirmed it before or after the election?

Related question: The FBI was in possession of it for almost a year before the election. Why do you think the communications between the FBI and Twitter started to explode in June because of (wink, wink) Russian disinformation? Because the FBI thought it was false?

[Copper]

@jon-nyc said in Biden's Laptop: It's real, and it's spectacular:

When did he confirm it?

Monday 10/19/2020

https://nypost.com/2020/10/19/john-ratcliffe-info-on-hunter-biden-laptop-not-russian-disinformation/

[jon-nyc]

I wish they’d just file charges already. Assuming the reporting that the FBI believes they can prove tax evasion and lying on a gun permit application is true.

[George K]

Hunter Biden's lawyers agree: It's real and it's spectacular.

The revelation came in a petulant letter from Hunter’s lawyers seeking a criminal probe into what they called attempts to “weaponize” its contents.

In the 14-page letter to Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell claimed that repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac “unlawfully” accessed Hunter’s laptop data and worked with former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to “weaponize” sordid and incriminating contents on it against Joe Biden.

“This failed dirty political trick directly resulted in the exposure, exploitation, and manipulation of Mr. Biden’s private and personal information,” Lowell wrote.

“Mr. Mac Isaac’s intentional, reckless, and unlawful conduct allowed for hundreds of gigabytes of Mr. Biden’s personal data, without any discretion, to be circulated around the Internet.”

The feds picked up the laptop in December 2019, but not before Mac Isaac made a copy and gave it to Giuliani’s personal lawyer, Robert Costello.

Giuliani provided The Post with a copy of the hard drive in October 2020.

Lowell’s letter singles out Mac Isaac, Giuliani, Costello, former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler, Bannon associate Jack Maxey, and Yaacov Apelbaum, founder and CEO of cyber analytics firm XRVision and former aide to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), as parties who gained unauthorized access to the laptop’s contents and disseminated it to the media and lawmakers.

“We believe that the facts and circumstances merit further investigation as to whether the conduct of Messrs. Mac Isaac, Costello, Giuliani, Bannon, Ziegler, Maxey, and Apelbaum violated several provisions of Delaware’s criminal code — including, but not necessarily limited to, computer-related property offenses … theft … possession of stolen property … and misapplication of another’s property … Each of these offenses, if violated, has the potential to be a felony, depending on the value of the property in question,” Lowell writes.

Costello points out that Mac Isaac has a “signed work order that gives [him] authorization to examine the hard drive and the property is deemed legally abandoned after 90 days. It is the property of John Paul Mac Isaac.”

Mac Isaac said it’s no coincidence the letter from Hunter Biden’s lawyer comes just as House Republicans are ready to open probes into the president’s son.

[George K]

Who pushed to have the story debunked by all those intelligence guys?

Biden campaign advisor Anthony Blinken.

[Jolly]

Well, everybody still thinks Jordan is just blowing smoke?

[George K]

So here's a question. Blinken pushed to have these 51 "intelligence" people sign the letter and so did Morell.

How is it that Blinken ended up with the plum SOS job and Morell got bupkis?

[Mik]

[George K]

FBI authenticated the laptop IN 2019.

https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Whistleblower-1-Transcript_Redacted.pdf

In October 2019, the FBI became aware that a repair shop had a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden and that the laptop might contain evidence of a crime. The FBI verified its authenticity in November of 2019 by matching the device number against Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud ID.

"Russian disinformation"...my ass.

[Jon]

@George-K said in Biden's Laptop: It's real, and it's spectacular:

How is it that Blinken ended up with the plum SOS job and Morell got bupkis?

Blinken and Biden go back decades. He was the lead Democratic staff member on the Senate Foreign relations committee back in the early 2000s when Biden chaired it and/or was ranking member. He was the foreign policy advisor to the 2008 Biden presidential campaign. He went on to be ‘national security advisor to the VP’ during his first term and became deputy Secretary of State during Obama’s second term. He was in the private sector during the Trump administration and came back to be foreign policy advisor to Bidens 2020 campaign.

So he’s basically been Biden’s foreign policy guy for 25 years. Nobody was surprised when he got State.

[Jon]

@George-K said in Biden's Laptop: It's real, and it's spectacular:

"Russian disinformation"...my ass.

So what do you think the FBI agents on the investigation should have done. Make it public?

[George K]

@Jon said in Biden's Laptop: It's real, and it's spectacular:

So what do you think the FBI agents on the investigation should have done.

Considering that it contains information of possible influence peddling, perhaps start an investigation rather than giving a heads-up to Twitter et al that something is coming which they (cough, cough) might, might, consider information.

And just maybe, not recruiting 51 "experts" on on Blinken's request that this be framed as fake.

Make it public?

New York Post tried that. And look how that worked out.

[Jon]

It looks like there’s an embedded assumption in that. The FBI agents on the case verified it. But it’s like they sent a memo to all 35,000 field agents (which would be the same as making it public).

Why would you expect other agents not to be skeptical of a laptop delivered from some guy via Giuliani to the NY Post?

Even Fox and WSJ turned the story down due to its sketchy provenance.

[George K]

It was a year between verification of the laptop as being Hunter's and the Giuliani NY Post events.

Do you think WSJ and Fox would have handled it differently had they known the laptop was verified almost a year before they were offered it?

The embedded assumption is yours, that the provenance was sketchy. FBI hid the provenance, and when it was discounted as having "hallmarks of Russian disinformation" the FBI was silent.

[Jon]

Again, it seems like you expected the FBI to make public their authentication of the laptop, even if you don’t want to say so explicitly.

[Axtremus]

Why would you expect the FBI to make its verification results public?
Was it established policy or common practice at the time to make this sort of thing public?

[George K]

I see your point.

OTOH, if the laptop contains evidence of a crime, as it seems to, would the FBI not pursue that? Especially a year before a presidential election.

[Jon]

Yes and they seem to have done so. But still that shouldn’t lead to a public announcement a la Comey.