Hunter Biden sued Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday, alleging the former lawyer of President Trump played a central role in the &#8220;total annihilation&#8221; of Biden&#8217;s digital privacy and data related to his infamous laptop computer.
Biden filed the <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.899829/gov.uscourts.cacd.899829.1.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">15-page complaint</a> in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, which also named Giuliani&#8217;s companies and attorney and former federal prosecutor Robert Costello, who reportedly represented Giuliani as a defendant, accusing them of violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Attorneys for Biden seek a court order to prevent the Defendants from accessing, tampering with, manipulating, or copying Biden&#8217;s data and returning any content related to the laptop to the president&#8217;s son.
&#8220;For the past many months and even years, Defendants have dedicated an extraordinary amount of time and energy toward looking for, hacking into, tampering with, manipulating, copying, disseminating, and generally obsessing over data that they were given that was taken or stolen from Plaintiff&#8217;s devices or storage platforms, including what Defendants claim to have obtained from Plaintiff&#8217;s alleged &#8220;laptop&#8221; computer,&#8221; Biden&#8217;s attorneys wrote in the complaint.
The suit also alleges the defendants admitted their possession of the content came from an &#8220;external drive&#8221; rather than an actual laptop reportedly left at a computer repair shop in Delaware in 2019. The data was &#8220;manipulated, altered and damaged&#8221; before the contents were copied and sent to Giuliani and Costello, the suit claims with &#8220;further alterations and damage to the data&#8221; unknown to the president&#8217;s son.
In the weeks leading up to the 2020 election, Giuliani disseminated emails, pictures and videos, and other data from Hunter&#8217;s laptop to the New York Post that implicated President Joe Biden in a Ukrainian business deal that placed Hunter on the board during his father&#8217;s time as Vice President during the Obama administration.
After initially claiming the laptop that he was accused of abandoning at the shop was either hacked, stolen, or some form of Russian disinformation campaign to hinder his father&#8217;s 2020 presidential candidacy, Hunter Biden finally admitted in a sitdown interview with CBS that it &#8220;certainly&#8221; could have belonged to him.
Then, amid working out a plea deal for a criminal probe, Biden finally admitted that the laptop packed with scandalous content was, in fact, his, according to the Post.
Ted Goodman, spokesman for Giuliani, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/26/hunter-biden-sues-rudy-giuliani-over-infamous-laptop.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> CNBC in a statement, &#8220;Hunter Biden has previously refused to admit ownership of the laptop.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m not surprised he&#8217;s now falsely claiming his laptop hard drive was manipulated by Mayor Giuliani, considering the sordid material and potential evidence of crimes on that thing,&#8221; Goodman said.
House Republicans recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mccarthy-announces-formal-impeachment-inquiry-against-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opened a formal impeachment inquiry</a> against Biden after lawmakers accused him of using his vice presidency to dissuade Ukrainian prosecutors from investigating the company. GOP officials also claim to have uncovered millions of dollars funneled to members of Biden&#8217;s family from foreign nationals.
Biden has repeatedly claimed he never spoke with his son about foreign business dealings.
The latest lawsuit from Hunter Biden comes after a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-biden-sues-former-trump-wh-staffer-over-infamous-laptop" target="_blank" rel="noopener">separate case</a> filed by his legal team accused former Trump White House staffer Garret Ziegler, the founder of the nonprofit Marco Polo, of violating California and federal computer privacy laws by publishing thousands of photos and emails from the laptop.
Ziegler worked for Trump during the last two years of his term as a policy analyst. His nonprofit created a new website in June, unveiling controversial content from the laptop to bring &#8220;truth and transparency&#8221; to America&#8217;s first family.

22nd Anniversary Of The 9/11 Attacks Observed In New York City

Hunter Biden Sues Rudy Giuliani And A Former Federal Prosecutor Over Laptop

House Republicans

Hunter Biden

Joe Biden

laptop computer

Obama Administration

Rudy Giuliani

Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jim-jordan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jim Jordan</a> (R-OH) subpoenaed an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> agent accused of coordinating suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story after the Justice Department prevented the agent from appearing for a transcribed interview with lawmakers. 
Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, issued a subpoena on Friday to Elvis Chan, an FBI agent based in San Francisco, who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facebook-docs-reveal-fbi-agent-made-completely-false-congressional-statements-involving-hunter-biden-laptop-jordan-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Republicans say</a> was “the main conduit” between the bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force and Big Tech companies to suppress the story of Hunter&#8217;s scandalous laptop in the weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
&#8220;The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of how and to what extent the Executive Branch has coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech,&#8221; Jordan <a href="https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2023-09/2023-09-15-jdj-to-chan-re-subpoena-cover-letter.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a letter to Chan. &#8220;As the primary liaison between the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) and social media companies, you are uniquely positioned to aid the Committee’s oversight.&#8221;
Chan previously told lawmakers that the FBI had not communicated with Facebook outside of a meeting that occurred the same day the New York Post published the Biden laptop article on October 14, 2020. But according to the Jordan, Chan was involved in a “secret ‘follow up’ call” with the social media giant the next day, allegedly contradicting a claim he made during a November 2022 deposition in the government censorship case Missouri v. Biden.
The federal agent also spoke with a Facebook employee that same day, who said, “Chan advised that he was up to speed on the current state of the matter within the FBI.” Chan also told the social media platform that “there was no current evidence to suggest any foreign connection … of the leaks,” according to the documents released by Jordan.
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In the letter, Jordan referenced the increasing evidence showing coordination between the White House and social media companies to suppress conservative content, outside of the Post&#8217;s story on Hunter&#8217;s laptop.
“Numerous documents that have been made publicly available reflect the weaponization of the federal government’s power to censor speech online directly and by proxy. It is necessary for Congress to gauge the extent to which FBI agents coerced, pressured, worked with, or relied upon social media and other tech companies to censor speech,” Jordan wrote. 
Documents released by Congress last month <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-pressured-fb-to-suppress-daily-wire-content-push-users-to-legacy-outlets-newly-released-docs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">show</a> that a White House official asked Facebook to promote legacy outlets and stifle The Daily Wire’s reach in order to accomplish the administration’s directives on suppressing content that clashed with its COVID vaccine agenda.

House Republican Conference Spet 14

Jordan Subpoenas FBI Agent Accused Of Coordinating Suppression Of Hunter Biden Laptop Story

Congress

Department of Justice

Jim Jordan

New York Post

Politics

Hunter Biden’s legal team on Wednesday filed a <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.898532/gov.uscourts.cacd.898532.1.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> against a former Trump White House staffer, accusing him of violating California and federal computer privacy laws by publishing thousands of photos and emails from the infamous laptop belonging to the president’s son.
The 14-page suit, filed in a California federal court, accuses defendant Garret Ziegler, the founder of the nonprofit Marco Polo, of “accessing, tampering with, manipulation, altering, copying and damaging computer data that they do not own and that they claim to have obtained from hacking into Plaintiff’s iPhone data and from scouring a copy of the hard drive of what they claim to be Plaintiff’s ‘laptop’ computer.”
Ziegler worked for former President Donald Trump during the last two years of his term as a policy analyst. His nonprofit <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/website-revealing-over-10000-photos-from-hunter-bidens-laptop-crashes-shortly-after-initial-launch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">created</a> a new website in June, unveiling controversial content from the laptop to bring “truth and transparency” to America’s first family.
He told Fox News earlier this year that it took engineers on the site — BidenLaptopMedia.com — “a couple of months” to redact obscene content from thousands of photos spanning from 2008 to 2019, including images exposing Hunter’s genitals and multiple nude photos of his deceased brother Beau Biden’s wife, Hallie Biden.
“The number one thing we’re about … is truth and transparency,” Ziegler said. “If the American people want to know what their first family is like, they’re going to get it. And we’re not going to be taking out photos that paint the Bidens in a good light.”
After initially claiming the laptop that he was accused of abandoning at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019 was either hacked, stolen, or some form of Russian disinformation campaign to hinder his father&#8217;s 2020 presidential candidacy, Hunter Biden finally admitted in a sitdown interview with <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hunter-biden-joe-family-intervention-laptop-reports-memoir/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CBS</a> that it &#8220;certainly&#8221; could have belonged to him.
Then, amid working out a plea deal for a criminal probe, Biden finally admitted that the laptop packed with scandalous content was, in fact, his, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/02/01/hunter-biden-admits-infamous-laptop-is-his-in-plea-for-probe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the New York Post.
Biden’s lawsuit against Trump’s former aide says that since leaving the White House in 2021, Ziegler “has devoted most of his waking time and energy to accessing, tampering with, manipulating, altering, copying and otherwise using” the material in question.
It also said that Ziegler made inflammatory statements weeks before attorneys for the president’s son filed the lawsuit.
“Within the last two weeks, Defendant Ziegler went so far as to declare on social media that efforts by Plaintiff to serve him with legal process in the future would met with violence: ‘If the US president’s son sends a proxy [i.e., a process server] to illegally trespass on my property I will blow their f***ing brains out,’” the suit notes.
Ziegler <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/13/hunter-biden-lawsuit-trump-laptop-00115683" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> POLITICO on Wednesday that Biden’s legal team had not yet served him the legal documents.
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“I nor the nonprofit, Marco Polo, have been served with any lawsuit — but the one I read this morning out of the Central District of California should embarrass Winston &amp; Strawn LLP,” he wrote in an email. “It’s not worth the paper it’s written on. Apart from the numerous state and federal laws and regulations which protect authors like me and the publishing that Marco Polo does, it’s not lost on us that Joe’s son filed this SLAPP one day after an Impeachment inquiry into his father was announced.”
Attorneys for Biden requested a jury trial based on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and California&#8217;s Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit comes after Hunter Biden called on the Justice Department to launch a criminal probe into Ziegler and others who disseminated contents from the laptop, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/01/politics/hunter-biden-laptop-contents-letter/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to CNN</a>.
The BidenLaptopEmails.com website publicized more than 120,000 emails from the abandoned laptop.
The continued laptop exposure comes after Hunter Biden faces ongoing investigations from federal prosecutors and lawmakers into foreign business dealings and allegations of lying about tax fraud and gun purchases.

Hunter Biden Sues Former Trump WH Staffer Over Infamous Laptop

Courts

Trump Administration

Secretary of State <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/antony-blinken" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Antony Blinken</a> denies soliciting what became a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials suggesting the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hunter-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hunter Biden</a> laptop story could be part of a Russian disinformation operation just weeks before the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/2020-election" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2020 election</a>.
The topic came up after the GOP-led House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees disclosed portions of a transcribed interview in which former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell talked about putting together the letter <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/republicans-start-calling-for-blinken-to-resign-over-hunter-biden-laptop-story" target="_blank" rel="noopener">following a conversation</a> with Blinken in October 2020.
&#8220;With regard to that letter, I didn&#8217;t – it wasn&#8217;t my idea, didn&#8217;t ask for it, didn&#8217;t solicit it,&#8221; Blinken said during a Monday <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/secretary-state-blinken-denies-role-hunter-biden-russian-disinfo-letter-wasnt-my-idea" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview with Fox News</a>. &#8220;And I think the testimony that the former deputy director of the CIA, Mike Morrell, put forward confirms that.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Secretary of State Antony Blinken denies that he asked for the letter to be written claiming the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian Disinformation and when asked if he accepts that the laptop isn’t Russian Disinformation, he says “I’m not engaging in politics”. <a href="https://t.co/2spkML1B9M">pic.twitter.com/2spkML1B9M</a>
&mdash; ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) <a href="https://twitter.com/alx/status/1653201136357191686?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2023</a></blockquote>
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A portion of the transcript shows <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023-04-20-jdj-mt-to-blinken-re-public-statement-on-hunter-biden-emails_0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Morell said &#8220;yes&#8221;</a> when asked if a call around mid-October 2020 from Blinken, who was then an adviser to President Joe Biden&#8217;s campaign at the time, triggered the letter. This led Republican leaders to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/deep-state-connection-ex-cia-chief-says-blinken-spurred-bid-to-discredit-hunter-biden-laptop-story" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raise concerns</a> about a &#8220;concerted effort to minimize and suppress public dissemination of the serious allegations about the Biden family&#8221; during the height of campaign season.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee say Republicans released <a href="https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5150" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cherry-picking excerpts</a> from the interview with Morell. They disclosed a different part of the transcript showing Morell said he could not remember Blinken asking or even suggesting that a statement about the laptop be put together.
&#8220;To be clear, no part of that interview demonstrates that Tony Blinken or any other Biden campaign official asked Mike Morell to write a letter about Hunter Biden’s laptop,&#8221; <a href="https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5150" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said a statement</a> from a spokesperson for the Judiciary Democrats.
The October 19, 2020, letter signed by 51 intelligence veterans said the laptop&#8217;s alleged contents have &#8220;all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.&#8221; After POLITICO, the news outlet that first reported the statement, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published a headline</a> that said the former intelligence officials were claiming the story was &#8220;Russian disinfo,&#8221; then-candidate Joe Biden, Hunter&#8217;s father, used the statement to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house-gop-demand-records-from-ex-intel-officials-about-hunter-biden-laptop-letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cast doubt on the laptop story</a> during one of his debates with then-President Donald Trump weeks before the election.
The laptop became a subject of interest after the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">began reporting</a> on details of Hunter Biden&#8217;s shady business dealings and personal life that it contained. Over the past two years, many of the contents of the laptop, which was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/02/politics/hunter-biden-laptop/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seized by the FBI</a>, have been <a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/hunter-biden-laptop-data-examined/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/hunter-biden-laptop-data-examined/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">analyzed and shown to be authentic</a>. Hunter Biden is under investigation by federal prosecutors looking into potential crimes related to his tax affairs, foreign business dealings, and a gun purchase. The president’s son has said he expects to be <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/big-footing-house-investigation-into-hunter-biden-could-hit-firewall" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cleared of wrongdoing</a>.
Among the signees <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-4393-d7aa-af77-579f9b330000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on the letter</a>, beyond Morell, were former CIA Directors John Brennan, Leon Panetta, and Michael Hayden. Another of the letter&#8217;s most prominent signees, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in February accused POLITICO of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-spy-chief-accuses-politico-of-distorting-letter-on-hunter-biden-laptop" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“deliberately” misrepresenting</a> its message. POLITICO defended its reporting about the letter.
Dan Hoffman, the CIA&#8217;s <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/extraordinarily-dangerous-former-cia-moscow-station-chief-blasts-leaks-on-russian-informant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">former Moscow station chief</a>, recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cia-veteran-reveals-why-he-didnt-sign-hunter-biden-laptop-letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">came forward</a> to say that he and &#8220;many others&#8221; were asked to sign the letter but declined to do it.
“I remember I got the letter, October 18, 2020, and at first glance, it seemed natural to lay the blame at the Kremlin’s doorstep. Remember, Vladimir Putin is in the Kremlin and he’s well known for cloak-and-dagger espionage operations,&#8221; Hoffman told Fox News. &#8220;But at the same time, there was no evidence and the letter noted there was no evidence. And I just felt like we needed to do the forensics.&#8221;
Asked if he accepts that the Hunter Biden laptop story was not Russian disinformation, Blinken said he would not be <a class="c-link" href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/secretary-state-blinken-denies-role-hunter-biden-russian-disinfo-letter-wasnt-my-idea" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.foxnews.com/media/secretary-state-blinken-denies-role-hunter-biden-russian-disinfo-letter-wasnt-my-idea" data-sk="tooltip_parent">&#8220;engaging in politics&#8221;</a> while focused on the job of being the nation&#8217;s top diplomat.
After Congress released portions of Morell&#8217;s testimony about Blinken, Republicans <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/republicans-start-calling-for-blinken-to-resign-over-hunter-biden-laptop-story" target="_blank" rel="noopener">began to call</a> for the Secretary of State to resign. Meanwhile, Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have accused Blinken of providing false testimony to Congress regarding his communications with Hunter Biden over the years. They have <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/johnson_grassley_to_blinken_-_december_2020_transcript.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demanded records</a> for an investigation.
When The Daily Wire reached out for a response to the false testimony claim, the State Department declined to say anything beyond referring to <a href="https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-april-21-2023/#post-439830-Misc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a recent statement</a> by an agency spokesperson refusing to get into what is &#8220;not a State Department issue.&#8221;

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Blinken Denies Asking For Hunter Biden Laptop Letter

2020 Election

Antony Blinken

First son Hunter Biden’s legal team on Monday demanded Congress investigate Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, accusing the Georgia Republican of making several “unethical” statements about the president’s son.
Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, sent a letter obtained by <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000187-b143-dbff-a3df-bfcb030b0000&amp;nname=playbook&amp;nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&amp;nrid=0000014e-f115-dd93-ad7f-f91513e50001&amp;nlid=630318">POLITICO</a> to the Office of Congressional Ethics, requesting lawmakers take action against Greene for her statements about Biden, alleging violations of the House Ethics Code.
“Representative Greene’s unethical conduct arises from her continuous verbal attacks, defamatory statements, publication of personal photos and data, and promotion of conspiracy theories about and against Robert Hunter Biden,” Lowell said. “None of these could possibly be deemed to be part of any legitimate legislative activity, as is clear from both the content of her statements and actions, and the forums she uses to spew her often unhinged rhetoric.”
Biden lived the life of a wealthy jet-setter while his father was vice president, accompanying him on overseas trips from 2008-2016 and striking lucrative deals with energy companies and investors in China and Ukraine. The laptop, which legacy media initially tried to discredit, has provided information about alleged Biden family corruption.
In addition to illuminating Hunter Biden’s alleged corrupt international dealings, the laptop also opened a window into accusations of drug abuse, the patronizing of prostitutes, and dysfunctional family squabbles.
Lowell referenced several social media posts and public statements from the Georgia lawmaker in her letter, saying Greene’s “unhinged rhetoric” against Biden “sound and tread like school-yard insults rather than the work of a Member of Congress, and they fail to uphold the integrity and dignity expected of members of the House of Representatives.”
Greene has vocalized criticism over President Joe Biden and his family since making her debut in Washington, D.C. In recent months, Greene has accused Hunter of “wheeling &amp; dealing with CCP ties and prostitutes with classified documents laying around.”
“The unmoored verbal abuses and ad hominem attacks against Mr. Biden are just a microcosm of Representative Greene’s numerous ethical violations and repeated lapses in ethical judgment, all of which warrant a review of her conduct,” Lowell said.
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Greene responded to the letter from Biden’s attorney on Twitter.
“Hunter is upset over my statements,” Greene said. “Well Hunter, the entire country is pissed off about your obvious influence peddling with your Daddy’s political power.”
“Come chat with us Republicans on the Oversight Committee,” she added. “We have a lot of questions.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Hunter is upset over my statements.
Well Hunter, the entire country is pissed off about your obvious influence peddling with your Daddy’s political power. 
Come chat with us Republicans on the Oversight Committee.
We have a lot of questions.<a href="https://t.co/QDTkFJiLlF">https://t.co/QDTkFJiLlF</a>
&mdash; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1650510973898293250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 24, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Biden is under investigation by U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David Weiss for possible tax and gun crimes. Last week, an IRS whistleblower said that powerful players inside the Department of Justice, reportedly including Attorney General Merrick Garland himself, were trying to kill the investigation.
The House Committee on Oversight is examining Biden-linked bank records looking at other Biden family members who appear to have benefited from international deals. Last month, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said he discovered that a Biden associate received a $3 million wire transfer from a Chinese energy company. Four members of the Biden family — including Hunter, the president’s brother, James, and Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter’s deceased brother Beau and his former paramour- pocketed $1.3 million from the transfer.
“There’s not going to be anybody left for a Christmas picture if the DOJ did their job and went and indicted anyone who has any type of fingerprints involved in this influence peddling scheme,” Comer said. “I mean, it’s the entire family.”
Greg Wilson contributed to this report.

House Oversight Subcommittee Hearing On Origins Of Covid

Hunter Biden’s Legal Team Demands Ethics Probe Over ‘Unethical’ Statements From Rep. Greene

Hunter Biden's Legal Team Demands Ethics Probe Over 'Unethical' Statements From Rep. Greene

Marjorie Taylor Greene

U.S. House of Representatives

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper accused POLITICO of &#8220;deliberately&#8221; misrepresenting a letter he and 50 other intelligence veterans signed regarding the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Clapper, who served as the nation&#8217;s spy chief during the Obama administration, said the letter did not assert that reporting on the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation operation, a notion that POLITICO peddled with its headline when first reporting the existence of the letter.
“There was message distortion,” Clapper <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/13/hunter-biden-laptop-claims-russian-disinfo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Washington Post&#8217;s Fact Checker</a>. “All we were doing was raising a yellow flag that this could be Russian disinformation. Politico deliberately distorted what we said. It was clear in paragraph five.”
The <a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-4393-d7aa-af77-579f9b330000" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-4393-d7aa-af77-579f9b330000" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">letter from the 51 former intelligence officials</a> came out in the days leading up to the 2020 presidential election, warning that reporting about the laptop&#8217;s alleged contents &#8220;has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.&#8221;
Although the signees stressed they did not know if emails being reported at the time were genuine, and they insisted they had no evidence of Russian involvement, POLITICO, which first reported the letter, went further than what the letter said by <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276" target="_blank" rel="noopener">publishing a headline</a> that said the former intelligence officials were claiming the story was &#8220;Russian disinfo.&#8221;
Then-candidate Joe Biden, Hunter&#8217;s father, used the letter to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house-gop-demand-records-from-ex-intel-officials-about-hunter-biden-laptop-letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cast doubt on the laptop story</a> during one of his debates with then-President Donald Trump. &#8220;There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plan,&#8221; Biden <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/joe-biden-says-hunter-biden-laptop-story-is-russian-plan-despite-lack-of-evidence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said during the debate</a>.
In an October 2020 interview with CNN, Clapper made comments that hewed more closely to POLITICO&#8217;s headline than the letter itself. &#8220;To me, this is just classic textbook Soviet Russian tradecraft at work,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“To me, this is just classic textbook Soviet Russian tradecraft at work,” former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says as authorities are investigating if recently published emails are tied to a Russian disinformation effort targeting Biden. <a href="https://t.co/shyMNnJ7Yr">https://t.co/shyMNnJ7Yr</a> <a href="https://t.co/GFSeIWXeY4">pic.twitter.com/GFSeIWXeY4</a>
&mdash; CNN (@CNN) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1317307227963678721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Clapper&#8217;s level of candidness became a subject of intense scrutiny roughly a decade ago during his service as director of national intelligence. Clapper <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRhjgynfhag" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testified to Congress</a> that the National Security Agency did not &#8220;wittingly&#8221; collect data on millions of Americans. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amid revelations</a> that the NSA was conducting bulk collection of U.S. caller data, Clapper conceded his statement was <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/07/02/198118060/cl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;clearly erroneous</a>.&#8221; He further claimed <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/intel-chief-clapper-gave-least-untruthful-answer-u-164742798.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to NBC News</a> that he had been responding to a senator&#8217;s question &#8220;in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful, manner.&#8221;
The Washington Post indicated that it reached out to Clapper after House Republicans, led by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), sent Clapper and 11 other signers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jim-jordan-puts-a-dozen-intel-veterans-on-notice-over-hunter-biden-laptop-letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">requests for documents and testimony</a> regarding the Hunter Biden laptop letter — a development first reported by The Daily Wire.
“No one who has spent time in Washington should be surprised that journalists and politicians willfully or unintentionally misconstrue oral or written statements,” former State Department official Thomas Fingar, another signer of the letter who was contacted by House Republicans, told The Washington Post. “The statement we signed was carefully written to minimize the likelihood that what was said would be misconstrued, and to provide a clear written record that could be used to identify and disprove distortions.”
The new report offered other tidbits of information, including that Clapper claimed he was unaware of how Biden described the letter during the presidential debate. The Washington Post also reported that its Fact Checker learned that former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, who had been a top candidate for CIA director in the Biden administration, organized the letter.
The laptop, which allegedly was abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop before the FBI obtained it, contains details about Hunter Biden&#8217;s personal life and financial affairs. In the spring of 2022, the repairman who obtained the laptop, John Paul Mac Isaac, sued POLITICO and others for defamation, <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/05/03/repairman-who-revealed-hunter-biden-laptop-sues-schiff-cnn-politico-beast/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accusing them of falsely asserting</a> that he spread Russian disinformation. The Daily Beast, one of the new outlets named in the lawsuit, later <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/daily-beast-apologizes-john-paul-mac-isaac-hunter-biden-laptop?intcmp=tw_fnc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued an apology</a> for reporting that the laptop was &#8220;stolen.&#8221;
POLITICO defended its reporting about the letter.
“The article fairly and accurately reported on — and summarized — the intelligence officials’ letter,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;More specifically, the headline is a fair summary of their allegations, the subhead offers additional context, and the first paragraph of the article hyperlinks to the letter itself, allowing readers to draw their own conclusion.&#8221;
Since the laptop story emerged more than two years ago, many of its contents have been <a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/hunter-biden-laptop-data-examined/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/hunter-biden-laptop-data-examined/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">analyzed and shown to be authentic</a>. Hunter Biden&#8217;s lawyers recently began to send letters to state and federal officials <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-biden-demands-criminal-investigation-into-several-figures-after-admitting-infamous-laptop-is-his" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demanding investigations into individuals</a> involved in sharing the contents of the laptop, which made their way to the media. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, later insisted the letters <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/hunter-bidens-lawyer-says-letters-dont-mean-laptop-is-his/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">do not &#8220;confirm&#8221;</a> the laptop was his client&#8217;s device.
Douglas Wise, a former Defense Intelligence Agency deputy director, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/intel-veteran-knew-hunter-biden-laptop-had-to-be-real-before-signing-letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">divulged last month</a> that he and the other signees surmised the contents of the laptop were genuine at the time the letter came out. &#8220;All of us figured that a significant portion of that content had to be real to make any Russian disinformation credible,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a_TWT&amp;dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fworld%2Fhunter-biden-laptop-files-had-to-be-real-intelligence-chief%2Fnews-story%2F2173db346096e625f538064772424775&amp;memtype=anonymous&amp;mode=premium&amp;v21=dynamic-groupb-control-noscore&amp;V21spcbehaviour=append" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Australian</a>.
Hunter Biden is under investigation by federal prosecutors, including over his foreign business dealings and tax affairs, though the existence of that years-long inquiry was not <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/hunter-biden-under-federal-investigation/2020/12/09/3b7361be-3a64-11eb-9276-ae0ca72729be_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed to the public</a> until after the 2020 election. Hunter Biden has said he expects to be <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/big-footing-house-investigation-into-hunter-biden-could-hit-firewall" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cleared of wrongdoing</a>.

James Clapper

Former Spy Chief Accuses POLITICO Of Distorting Letter On Hunter Biden Laptop

Obama Spy Chief Accuses POLITICO Of Peddling Fake News About Hunter Biden Laptop Letter

Fake News

Media

Media Bias

U.S.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) is turning up the heat on 51 U.S. intelligence veterans who signed a letter suggesting the Hunter Biden laptop story could be part of a Russian disinformation operation.
Jordan and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Michael Turner (R-OH) signed letters sent Monday to 12 of these ex-intelligence officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
In the correspondence obtained by The Daily Wire, the lawmakers said a request for relevant documents and testimony from the House Judiciary Committee in April 2022, when Jordan was ranking member of the panel, did not receive full compliance. &#8220;As we begin the 118th Congress, we write again to reiterate our outstanding request and ask that you immediately comply in full,&#8221; the lawmakers wrote, alluding to the fact that Republicans are now in control of the House.
The other recipients of letters on Monday were Rick Ledgett, John McLaughlin, Michael Morell, Nicholas Rasmussen, Russell Travers, Michael Vickers, Nick Shapiro, Jeremy Bash, Thomas Fingar, and Michael Hayden. Many of them held high-level positions in the CIA while others were high-ranking officials in other parts of the U.S. intelligence community.
The letters make no mention of subpoenas, but Jordan has shown a willingness to use the tool. Last week, Jordan <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/politics/doj-response-special-counsel-documents" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued his first round of subpoenas</a> as chairman to top Biden administration officials seeking documents related to local school board meetings.
The <a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-4393-d7aa-af77-579f9b330000" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-4393-d7aa-af77-579f9b330000" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">letter from the 51 former intelligence officials</a> came out in the days leading up to the 2020 presidential election, warning that reporting about the laptop&#8217;s alleged contents &#8220;has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.&#8221; Although the signees stressed they did not know if emails being reported at the time were genuine and they insisted they had no evidence of Russian involvement, the letter was nevertheless used to dismiss the laptop and its provenance.
POLITICO, which first reported the letter, went further than what the letter said by <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276" target="_blank" rel="noopener">publishing a headline</a> that said the former intelligence officials were claiming the story was &#8220;Russian disinfo.&#8221; Then-candidate Joe Biden, Hunter&#8217;s father, used the letter to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house-gop-demand-records-from-ex-intel-officials-about-hunter-biden-laptop-letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cast doubt on the laptop story</a> during one of his debates with then-President Donald Trump.
The laptop, which allegedly was abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop before the FBI obtained it, contains details about Hunter Biden&#8217;s personal life and financial affairs. The president&#8217;s son is now under federal investigation, including over his foreign business dealings and tax affairs, though the existence of that years-long inquiry was not <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/hunter-biden-under-federal-investigation/2020/12/09/3b7361be-3a64-11eb-9276-ae0ca72729be_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed to the public</a> until after the 2020 election. Hunter Biden has said he expects to be <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/big-footing-house-investigation-into-hunter-biden-could-hit-firewall" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cleared of wrongdoing</a>.
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee initially demanded in April 2022 materials from the 51 intelligence veterans that identify anyone they contacted about drafting and promoting the letter.
Since the laptop story emerged more than two years ago, many of its contents have been <a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/hunter-biden-laptop-data-examined/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/hunter-biden-laptop-data-examined/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">analyzed and shown to be authentic</a>.
Douglas Wise, a former Defense Intelligence Agency deputy director, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/intel-veteran-knew-hunter-biden-laptop-had-to-be-real-before-signing-letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">divulged last month</a> that he and the other signees surmised the contents of the laptop were genuine at the time the letter came out. &#8220;All of us figured that a significant portion of that content had to be real to make any Russian disinformation credible,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a_TWT&amp;dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fworld%2Fhunter-biden-laptop-files-had-to-be-real-intelligence-chief%2Fnews-story%2F2173db346096e625f538064772424775&amp;memtype=anonymous&amp;mode=premium&amp;v21=dynamic-groupb-control-noscore&amp;V21spcbehaviour=append" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Australian</a>.
Last week, Hunter Biden&#8217;s lawyers sent letters to state and federal officials <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-biden-demands-criminal-investigation-into-several-figures-after-admitting-infamous-laptop-is-his" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demanding investigations into individuals</a> involved in sharing the contents of the laptop, which made their way to the media. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, later insisted the letters <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/hunter-bidens-lawyer-says-letters-dont-mean-laptop-is-his/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">do not &#8220;confirm&#8221;</a> the laptop was his client&#8217;s device.

Jim Jordan Puts A Dozen Intel Veterans On Notice Over Hunter Biden Laptop Letter

Do you ever get the sense we live in a clown world run by imbeciles? The latest example of the sheer stupidity of our so-called elites can be found in the latest updates regarding Hunter Biden&#8217;s infamous &#8220;laptop from hell.&#8221;
On Wednesday, Biden the younger&#8217;s legal team <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hunter-bidens-lawyers-demand-criminal-investigation-laptop-leakers-rudy-giuliani" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sent a letter</a> to the United States Department of Justice and the Delaware attorney general requesting an investigation into &#8220;individuals for whom there is considerable reason to believe violated various federal laws in accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data.&#8221;
The letters were taken by many as a sign that Hunter was finally confirming that Hunter&#8217;s laptop left at John Paul Mac Isaac&#8217;s repair shop was actually his. Readers will remember that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cbs-finally-admits-hunters-laptop-is-real-more-than-two-years-after-the-fact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">51 former intelligence officials</a> claimed that the New York Post&#8217;s original 2020 report on the computer was &#8220;Russian disinformation.&#8221; In turn, Twitter censored the story, and the rest is history. Hunter has never denied or confirmed that it&#8217;s his laptop, so the legal request sent this week appeared to be a stunning admission.
Then his attorneys released a statement so ludicrous, it is laughable. Biden&#8217;s counsel claimed that the request for a criminal investigation does not in any way confirm that the laptop is actually his.
&#8220;These letters do not confirm Mac Isaac’s or others’ versions of a so-called laptop,&#8221; Hunter&#8217;s attorney Abbe Lowell <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hunter-bidens-lawyers-demand-criminal-investigation-laptop-leakers-rudy-giuliani" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Fox News. &#8220;They address their conduct of seeking, manipulating, and disseminating what they allege to be Mr. Biden’s personal data, wherever they claim to have gotten it.&#8221;
Huh?
The law offices not confirming that the computer in question and its contents are real — they just want the DOJ to investigate key figures who reported on it and shared its contents? Where did this team of attorneys come from — the Law Offices of Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe?
Numerous media outlets have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cbs-finally-admits-hunters-laptop-is-real-more-than-two-years-after-the-fact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">verified that the texts</a>, emails, photos, and other content taken from the laptop are real. We knew in 2020 it was real, but legacy media outlets only got around to confirming the veracity in 2022.
Nonetheless, Hunter&#8217;s counsel says it is all one big con played by Trump supporters.
&#8220;This failed dirty political trick directly resulted in the exposure, exploitation, and manipulation of Mr. Biden’s private and personal information,&#8221; Lowell said in the letters sent to the DOJ. &#8220;Politicians and the news media have used this unlawfully accessed, copied, distributed, and manipulated data to distort the truth and cause harm to Mr. Biden.&#8221;
Biden&#8217;s legal team also acknowledge their request is unusual.
&#8220;The actions described above more than merit a full investigation and, depending on the resulting facts, may merit prosecution under various statutes. It is not a common thing for a private person and his counsel to seek someone else being investigated, but the actions and motives here require it,&#8221; Lowell said in the letter.
So, to recap, Biden&#8217;s attorneys understand they are asking for special treatment, claim an investigation into &#8220;Mr. Biden&#8217;s personal computer data&#8221; is needed but then try to argue that they&#8217;re not saying it is Hunter&#8217;s laptop.
Meanwhile, that same &#8220;computer data&#8221; could very well lead to the prosecution of Hunter himself. Ideally, the letter is ignored entirely, but with President Joe Biden&#8217;s DOJ, you can never be so sure it won&#8217;t be wielded against his political enemies.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Hunter and Joe Biden

Hunter’s Attorney’s Defense Of The ‘So-Called Laptop’ Is So Ludicrous, It’s Laughable

Hunter's Attorney's Defense Of The 'So-Called Laptop' Is So Ludicrous, It's Laughable

Legacy Media

Scandals

Hunter Biden&#8217;s legal team demanded federal and state criminal investigations into individuals involved in sharing the contents of his infamous laptop that was first reported on in October 2020 by the New York Post.
In the <a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23596117/letters-from-attorneys-for-hunter-biden-to-the-delaware-attorney-general-the-justice-departments-national-security-division-and-the-irs.pdf">letters</a> to the Department of Justice, the Delaware attorney general, and the IRS, Hunter Biden&#8217;s counsel admitted that the information contained on the laptop does, in fact, belong to Hunter Biden.
According to computer repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac, he took possession of the laptop in 2019 and later alerted the FBI about the contents on the computer. He also allegedly tried to reach Hunter Biden for months to notify him that the laptop was ready to be picked up.
Isaac allegedly made a copy of the laptop and gave it to Rudy Giuliani’s personal attorney Robert J. Costello. Federal authorities took possession of the laptop in December 2019.
The letter from Hunter Biden&#8217;s lawyer asks for investigations into Isaac, Giuliani, Costello, Steve Bannon, ex-Trump aide Garrett Ziegler, Bannon associate Jack Maxey, and cyber analytics firm executive Yaacov Apelbaum.
Biden&#8217;s lawyers claim that &#8220;there is considerable reason to believe&#8221; that those individuals &#8220;violated various federal laws in accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data.&#8221;
&#8220;We believe that these facts and circumstances merit further investigation as to whether the conduct of Messrs. Mac Isaac, Costello, Giuliani, Bannon, Ziegler, Maxey and Apelbaum violated federal law— including, but not necessarily limited to, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Stored Communications Act, the National Stolen Property Act, and 18 U.S. Code § 119 (which prohibits knowingly making public restricted personal information of a &#8216;covered person,&#8217; a definition which specifically encompasses Hunter Biden, as an immediate family member of the U.S. President),&#8221; Hunter Biden&#8217;s attorneys claimed.
The letter admitted that it was &#8220;not a common thing for a private person and his counsel to seek someone else being investigated&#8221; but claimed that &#8220;the actions and motives here require it.&#8221;
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/01/politics/hunter-biden-laptop-contents-letter/index.html">reported</a> that Hunter Biden&#8217;s legal team also sent a cease and desist letter to Fox News host Tucker Carlson and demanded a retraction of a segment that Carlson broadcast on the laptop.

Kennedy Center Honorees

Hunter Biden Demands Criminal Investigation Into Several Figures After Admitting Infamous Laptop Is His

The bombshell story about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hunter-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hunter Biden’s laptop</a> from the New York Post was censored after the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> had repeatedly warned <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> executives about foreign election interference campaigns, according to the <a href="https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1604871630613753856" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seventh installment</a> of the Twitter Files released Monday.
Previous editions of the project, revealed by independent journalists based on emails and other internal company documents provided by Twitter CEO <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a>, have shown that federal law enforcement <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-new-twitter-files-shows-how-federal-state-governments-monitor-americans-social-media-posts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policed content</a> on the platform and asked executives to remove certain posts. Even before the New York Post released the now-infamous October 2020 <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a>, which included evidence that Hunter Biden introduced his father to a Ukrainian businessman, FBI officials pressured Twitter management to censor the story.
Indeed, there existed “an organized effort by representatives of the intelligence community” aimed at “senior executives at news and social media companies” to discredit “leaked information about Hunter Biden before and after it was published,” according to independent journalist Michael Shellenberger.
The FBI also paid Twitter more than $3.4 million for their &#8220;legal process response,&#8221; apparently referencing the time Twitter executives spent coordinating with the agency.
FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan sent ten documents to former Twitter Head of Site Integrity Yoel Roth on the evening of October 13, hours before the New York Post article would be released. Chan urged Roth that the documents were “not spam” and asked him to “confirm receipt.” Two minutes later, Roth replied: “Received and downloaded &#8211; thanks!”
Beyond the communications on October 13, Shellenberger pointed to legal testimony from Roth and recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/evidence-of-fbi-meddling-in-2020-election-mounts-after-zuckerbergs-hunter-biden-laptop-revelation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">comments</a> from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. They indicated that FBI officials had spent months priming Twitter and Facebook leadership to expect “hack-and-leak operations” from state actors ahead of the 2020 election, even though Chan had admitted that no new intelligence had prompted them to reach such a conclusion. Twitter executives repeatedly “reported very little Russian activity” of concern in the months before the election in emails to the FBI, according to Shellenberger, and told multiple news outlets that negligible election interference had been occurring through Russian accounts.
Nevertheless, the FBI worked relentlessly to influence journalists and social media executives. One workshop hosted by the Aspen Institute in September 2020 prepared Roth, the head of security policy at Meta, and the top national security reporters for the New York Times and the Washington Post on how to handle a purported document dump from Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company where Biden provided scant services for enormous paychecks.
Roth had also spurned previous attempts front the FBI to acquire data from Twitter, explaining that the company has a “long-standing policy” barring the use of data for “surveillance and intelligence-gathering purposes.” Another internal email from Twitter Director of Policy Carlos Monje sent to Roth confirmed that the intelligence community had been embarking on a “sustained” but “uncoordinated” campaign asking Twitter to share data.
Chan arranged in July 2020 for Twitter executives to receive temporary security clearances one month before the election. Former FBI General Counsel Jim Baker had been working at the company, and there were so many FBI alums that they had started a new Slack channel to onboard new arrivals from the law enforcement agency. Roth and Chan eventually created a “virtual war room” for internet executives, as well as officials from the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, also known as the ODNI.
When the New York Post article was published on October 14, Roth said in an email that the story was not “clearly in violation” of the company’s hacked materials policy or “anything else” but added that the story felt “a lot like a somewhat subtle leak operation.” Baker insisted to Roth that the materials from the laptop were either faked or hacked, even though the New York Post had included a receipt from the repair shop signed by Hunter Biden.
A subsequent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-censorship-of-hunter-bidens-laptop-story-helped-joe-biden-win" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poll</a> of Biden voters in critical swing states commissioned by the Media Research Center found that 45.1% said they were “unaware of the financial scandal enveloping Biden and his son, Hunter,” while awareness of the scandal would have led 9.4% of voters to abandon Biden as their preferred candidate. The current commander-in-chief won states such as Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin by extraordinarily narrow margins, implying that knowledge of the story could have changed the outcome of the race.

World Food Program USA’s Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony

New ‘Twitter Files’ Show FBI Paid Twitter Millions, Influenced Execs To Censor Hunter Biden Laptop Story

Big Tech

Social Media Censorship

Twitter

No one in the U.S. intelligence community had authorization to claim the Hunter Biden laptop story was part of a Russian disinformation plot, a top official from the Trump administration said on Sunday.
In an interview in which he discussed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-fourth-installment-of-the-twitter-files-is-released" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> &#8220;The Twitter Files,&#8221;</a> former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe insisted there was only one reason why a member of his office would be in contact with Twitter in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election as described in the messages.
Such a meeting would need approval from former President Donald Trump&#8217;s National Security Council and would be part of a &#8220;coordinated process&#8221; to provide election security briefings to &#8220;groups&#8221; of private companies or state election officials, Ratcliffe told host Maria Bartiromo on Fox News&#8217;s &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/JohnRatcliffe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JohnRatcliffe</a> response to the Twitter file release from <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mtaibbi</a>.<a href="https://twitter.com/JohnRatcliffe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JohnRatcliffe</a> tells <a href="https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MariaBartiromo</a> the only reason the DNI would be meeting with twitter. <a href="https://t.co/F3PP5ksLPl">pic.twitter.com/F3PP5ksLPl</a>
&mdash; The Dirty Truth (Josh) (@AKA_RealDirty) <a href="https://twitter.com/AKA_RealDirty/status/1601964000623071232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;None of those meetings, Maria, would have had anything to do with content moderation, much less anything to do with specifically&#8221; any warnings about the Hunter Biden laptop being part of a Russian disinformation effort, he said. &#8220;There never would have been any authority or reason for anyone within the intelligence community to be saying anything otherwise.&#8221;
Ratcliffe is a former Republican congressman from Texas who Trump picked to take over the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in 2020. In that role, Ratcliffe oversaw the agencies of the intelligence community. This includes the FBI and Homeland Security Department, agencies that, along with DNI, met with Twitter about &#8220;election security,&#8221; according to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-releases-hunter-biden-files-tweets-deleted-at-behest-of-team-biden-exec-was-key-behind-censorship-decision" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post revealed by journalist Matt Taibbi</a>.
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20. This post about the Hunter Biden laptop situation shows that Roth not only met weekly with the FBI and DHS, but with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI): <a href="https://t.co/s5IiUjQqIY">pic.twitter.com/s5IiUjQqIY</a>
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1601364807831425025?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Reporting about the laptop started in October 2020, during the final weeks of the presidential election cycle when Hunter&#8217;s father, Joe Biden, was running for the White House. Much of the laptop&#8217;s contents, which included details about Hunter’s business dealings, drug use, and sex life, have since been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/hunter-biden-laptop-data-examined/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analyzed and shown to be authentic</a>. But at the time of the laptop&#8217;s emergence, social media companies, including Twitter, took steps to temporarily suppress the spread of the story, leading to claims of improper election influence by former President Donald Trump and his allies.
Ratcliffe said his <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ratcliffe-hunter-biden-laptop-emails-not-russian-disinformation-campaign" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assertion back in October 2020</a> that the laptop was not part of a Russian disinformation campaign, as suggested in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kevin-mccarthy-vows-subpoenas-for-51-intel-veterans-in-hunter-biden-probe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials</a>, was &#8220;the official position of the intelligence community&#8221; and &#8220;has never been changed, even to this day.&#8221;
Republicans in Congress are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/incoming-gop-chairman-sends-warning-shot-to-all-twitter-employees-tied-to-hunter-biden-laptop-controversy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gearing up for a Hunter Biden investigation</a> with control of the House next year. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who is positioned to become House speaker, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kevin-mccarthy-vows-subpoenas-for-51-intel-veterans-in-hunter-biden-probe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said Republicans would subpoena</a> the dozens of intelligence veterans who signed onto the letter warning the laptop story “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Decrying what he labeled a &#8220;domestic disinformation campaign,&#8221; Ratcliffe said one line of inquiry that needs to be pursued relates to former top FBI lawyer James Baker, who as Twitter’s deputy general counsel, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-fbi-lawyer-turned-twitter-counsel-supported-decision-to-suppress-hunter-biden-laptop-story-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeared to support</a> the social media site’s move to suppress the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop. This disclosure in The Twitter Files led Twitter CEO Elon Musk to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-twitter-files-compromised-after-lawyer-involved-in-the-controversy-was-behind-vetting-the-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fire Baker</a>.
&#8220;One of the things that needs to be determined is what was [Baker&#8217;s] relationship with Twitter before he got to Twitter, and was he sharing information as the FBI general counsel to the benefit of one political party, to the detriment of another, that then continued when he got to Twitter?&#8221; Ratcliffe said.

John Ratcliffe

Ratcliffe Says Only One Reason Why Official From Top Spy Office Met With Twitter

Elections

odni

House Republicans will subpoena the 51 intelligence veterans who signed a letter suggesting the Hunter Biden laptop story could be part of a Russian disinformation operation, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) pledged on Saturday.
The commitment from McCarthy, who is positioned to become speaker of the House next term, comes as Twitter CEO Elon Musk works with multiple journalists to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-fourth-installment-of-the-twitter-files-is-released" target="_blank" rel="noopener">release &#8220;The Twitter Files,&#8221;</a> including internal messages about efforts to suppress the spread of reporting about the contents of the laptop ahead of the 2020 election.
During an appearance on Fox News&#8217; &#8220;One Nation,&#8221; McCarthy was teed up to discuss ways in which Republicans would conduct investigations into Twitter once they take over the lower chamber. He said it is &#8220;egregious what we&#8217;re finding&#8221; and focused on the dozens of former intelligence officials whom critics have <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/10/19/its-been-two-years-since-51-intelligence-agents-interfered-with-an-election-they-still-wont-apologize/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused of election interference</a>.
&#8220;Those 51 intel agents that signed a letter that said the Hunter Biden information was all wrong — was Russia collusion — many of them have a security clearance,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/kevin-mccarthy-pledges-subpoenas-51-intel-agents-wake-hunter-biden-revelations-twitter-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">McCarthy said</a>.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Kevin McCarthy shares his path to becoming speaker" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Eq25mxkP024?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The signees, which include former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan, <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-4393-d7aa-af77-579f9b330000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned in the letter</a> that the October 2020 arrival of reporting about the laptop &#8220;has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.&#8221; Going further than what the letter said, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Politico used a headline</a> that said the former intelligence officials were claiming the story was &#8220;Russian disinfo.&#8221; Then-candidate Joe Biden, the father of Hunter, used the letter to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house-gop-demand-records-from-ex-intel-officials-about-hunter-biden-laptop-letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cast doubt on the laptop story</a> during one of his debates with then-President Donald Trump.
McCarthy said the intelligence veterans would be subpoenaed and brought before a committee to address the letter about the laptop, many of the contents of which have since been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/hunter-biden-laptop-data-examined/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analyzed and shown to be authentic</a>.
&#8220;Why did they sign it?&#8221; McCarthy asked. &#8220;Why did they lie to the American public? A Clapper, a Brennan? Why did you use the reputation that America was able to give to you — more information — but use it for a political purpose and lie to the American public?&#8221;
McCarthy also said Facebook and Google should be scrutinized, claiming they &#8220;became an arm of the Democratic Party and the arm of government,&#8221; and asserted these tech companies should not have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-challenging-big-techs-section-230-legal-protections" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Section 230 legal protections</a>.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/incoming-gop-chairman-sends-warning-shot-to-all-twitter-employees-tied-to-hunter-biden-laptop-controversy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Hunter Biden probe</a> is one of many that Republicans are gearing up to conduct after they won a slim majority in the House in the 2022 midterm cycle. In a House floor vote set for next month, McCarthy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/andy-biggs-to-challenge-kevin-mccarthy-for-speaker-position" target="_blank" rel="noopener">needs the support of a simple majority</a> of members to become speaker. He is being challenged by at least one Republican, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/andy-biggs-to-challenge-kevin-mccarthy-for-speaker-position" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ)</a>, who has argued that McCarthy has been disloyal to Trump and encouraged colleagues to “reinvigorate the America First movement.&#8221;

Kevin McCarthy

Kevin McCarthy Vows Subpoenas For 51 Intel Veterans In Hunter Biden Probe

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