Hunter Biden admitted during a CBS News interview that aired in part on Friday morning that the laptop at the center of a scandal could be his before promoting a debunked conspiracy theory that Russian intelligence could be behind it.
Hunter Biden had the following exchange with CBS News:
CBS NEWS: Was that your laptop?
HUNTER BIDEN: For real, I don’t know.
CBS NEWS: I know. But you know that’s-
HUNTER BIDEN: I really don’t know.
CBS NEWS: Okay, you don’t know, yes or now, if the laptop was yours.
HUNTER BIDEN: I don’t have any idea. I have no idea whether–
CBS NEWS: So, could have been yours?
HUNTER BIDEN: Of course, certainly. There could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me. It could be that I was hacked. It could be that was the– that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me.
However, when the story broke last year, the then-Director of National Intelligence stated unequivocally, “Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign and I think it’s clear the American people know that.”
The next day, a senior federal law enforcement official confirmed to Fox News that the FBI and DOJ agreed with ODNI and did not believe that the emails were part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
The New York Post, which broke the story about the laptop in the weeks leading up to the 2020 election, wrote a brief summary on Friday of what they uncovered last year, which included emails about Democrat President Joe Biden’s ties to foreign businesses that Hunter Biden was connected to. Among the businesses was Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company linked to corruption and which was at the center of former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
The Post wrote:
The emails revealed that the younger Biden introduced a top Burisma executive to his father, then vice president, less than a year before the elder Biden admittedly pressured Ukrainian officials into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company. The never-before-revealed meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, a Burisma board adviser, sent Hunter on April 17, 2015.
The water-damaged MacBook Pro — which bore a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation — was dropped off for repair at a Delaware computer shop in April 2019, but the individual who dropped it off never returned to pick it up. It was seized by the FBI in December of that year.
In addition to his Ukrainian connections, other emails on the computer showed Hunter discussing potential business deals with China’s largest private energy company. One deal seemed to spark considerable interest with the younger Biden, who called it “interesting for me and my family.”
The laptop also contained highly personal photos and recordings, including an explicit, 12-minute video that appears to show the first son — who’s struggled with addiction in the past — smoking crack and engaged in sex acts with an unidentified woman.
WATCH:
Months after it was alleged that a laptop revealed Hunter Biden's business interests in China and Ukraine, the president's son tells Tracy Smith that the laptop "could be" his
Watch the full interview this weekend on #CBSSunday pic.twitter.com/DhtY5IcPeg
— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) April 2, 2021