The laptop and hard drive that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden was subpoenaed by the FBI in connection with a money-laundering investigation opened in 2019.
Fox News reports that it’s unclear whether the investigation was directly related to Hunter Biden or if the investigation is still open.
One of the documents shown by the news outlet is a “Receipt of Property” form detailing the bureau obtaining the laptop from John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of the computer store in Delaware who also gave the contents of the hardware to Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, who then gave the materials to the New York Post.
The first part of the number in the “CASE ID” section, “272D,” indicates a money laundering investigation, which one government official said denotes “transnational or blanket.”
Another document is a subpoena for Mac Isaac to appear before the U.S. District Court in Delaware on Dec. 9, 2019.
“The FBI cannot open a case without predication, so they believed there was predication for criminal activity,” a government official told Fox News. “This means there was sufficient evidence to believe that there was criminal conduct.”
Sen. Ron Johnson also sent a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Wednesday, writing, “I respectfully request that your office open an investigation into the FBI’s handling of the laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden.”
“Because the FBI has not provided substantive responses to my inquiries, the American people cannot be assured of those facts,” the Wisconsin Republican added. Johnson noted that he was first notified of the laptop’s existence in September, and after several attempts at getting additional information from the FBI, the bureau responded that “it would not confirm or deny any information identified by committee staff even though several of the questions were not related to the possible existence of an ongoing grand jury investigation.”
Democrats, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, and former intelligence officials said that the information can’t be trusted, raising concerns that the story is connected to the Kremlin.
On Tuesday, a federal law enforcement official confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the FBI was in possession of the laptop, first reported by the New York Post, and that the Justice Department bureau had no information to suggest that the emails were part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
“The intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that, and we have shared no intelligence with Chairman Schiff or any other member of Congress that Hunter Biden’s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign,” Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said, adding that “Adam Schiff saying that this is part of some Russian disinformation campaign and that the IC has assessed that or believes that is simply not true.”
The Biden campaign rebutted the allegations against Hunter Biden. Spokesman Andrew Bates told Fox News, “The Attorney General of Delaware’s office indicated that the FBI has ‘ongoing investigations regarding the veracity of this entire story.’ And it would be unsurprising for an investigation of a disinformation action involving Rudy Giuliani and those assisting him to involve questions about money laundering, especially since there are other documented inquiries into his dealings.” Joe Biden has called the reports “a desperate smear campaign.”
Author: Tyler Van Dyke
