“The defendant’s laptop is real.” With those words and pictures like this one of Biden using crack, the Justice Department introduced the Hunter Biden laptop as evidence in his upcoming trial over federal gun violations. The federal prosecutors went on to denounce suggestions of Russian disinformation, long peddled by the Bidens, the media and former intelligence officials, as nothing more than a “conspiracy theory.”
The media eagerly spread the claim of Russian disinformation before the presidential election. Twitter and others suppressed the story. This was done through one of the most skillful disinformation campaigns in history.
It later came out that associates of the Biden campaign (including now Secretary of State Antony Blinken) pushed a long effort to get former intelligence officials to sign a letter making the claim, knowing that an ever-accommodating media would accept the claim without question or further inquiry.
At the time, some of us wrote that the laptop was “self-authenticating” since many of the emails were confirmed by third parties and other evidence. The Justice Department last week made the same claim of “self-authentication” as well as independent confirmation by federal investigators.
In the now-debunked letter of former intelligence officials just before the election, figures such as Leon Panetta, former CIA Director in the Obama Administration, claimed that the letter had all of the markings of a Russian disinformation effort by intelligence services. (Panetta continued to make the assertion late last year in pushing what the federal government is now calling a “conspiracy theory.”).
The Washington Post’s Phillip Bump and others also continued to push the conspiracy theory. Indeed, in 2021, when media organizations were finally admitting that the laptop was authentic, Bump was still declaring that it was a “conspiracy theory.” Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Bump continued to suggest that “the laptop was seeded by Russian intelligence.”
What is equally astonishing is that in 2023 the Post expressly stood by Bump’s reporting on the laptop and other debunked claims. Even after the government has declared this reporting as part of a “conspiracy theory,” the Post continues to support the reporting by Bump and others.
The laptop includes not just pictures of Hunter using drugs but brandishing a handgun. The court clearly agrees with the government on the authenticity of the laptop. It has ruled against the defense and will allow it to be introduced into evidence.
Despite the conclusions of American intelligence and others, the Biden team continued to push the disinformation. That led the Justice Department to tell the court that “The defendant’s theory about the laptop is a conspiracy theory with no supporting evidence.” It added that Hunter’s “laptop is real (it will be introduced as a trial exhibit) and it contains significant evidence of the defendant’s guilt.”
The response from the media has been a collective shrug. Worse yet, many of these same political and media figures continue to support censorship and government regulations of “disinformation” while the government is now acknowledging that they carried off one of the most successful disinformation campaigns in history.
Jonathan: Would you continue to push stories about Hunter Biden if he were NOT the son of the current President? A resounding “No”! Your job in this election season is to keep pushing the false narrative about Hunter because it plays well with DJT’s supporters–and you hope it will spill over to provide an issue in the November election.
Would you see a similar prosecution under a DJT/ Bill Barr DOJ? Again, a resounding “No”. Had Eric or Don Jr. been accused of tax violations or lying on a gun registration form that case would have shut down before it saw the light of day! And we probably wouldn’t have seen a peep about it in one of your columns.
What is remarkable, and something you don’t mention, is that Joe Biden has taken a hands off policy re his son’s legal problems. Same with AG Garland. He has allowed SC Weiss to pursue his prosecution without any interference. That would not have happened under DJT/ Barr!
Your column really belongs in the National Inquirer or the NY Post–two tabloids that deal in salacious stories, including photos of Hunter apparently passed out with a crack pipe in his mouth and allegedly holding a handgun. When you get in the gutter with the tabloids don’t expect us to treat your column as the work of a serious legal scholar!
Here, Dennis continues to deflect and try to make it about Hunter. Very weak sauce, even for him.
Then he ironically speaks of tabloids, when he himself c\brings us the Supermarket Tabloid update every day!
Self awareness is not his guy’s strong suit.
photos of Hunter apparently passed out with a crack pipe in his mouth and allegedly holding a handgun.
Here, Dennis engages in the left’s favorite tactic,,,don’t believe your lyin’ eyes.
Dennis, Mr. Turley has proven time and time again to be far less partisan than you.
Far less full of crap, and far more respected than you, too.
Yet you will persist. Doing your ‘job poking holes’ that sinks nothing. Poor Dennis.
Dennis, the difference is that Trump and his sons are innocent, while Joe Biden, his son, and the rest of his family are guilty. “Your job in this election season is to” learn the facts before you open your mouth. That will help to prevent you from remaining the village idiot.
“Jonathan: Would you continue to push stories about Hunter Biden if he were NOT the son of the current President? A resounding “No”!”
And you would be correct. However not because of what you think but rather the fact that Hunter Biden would be a nobody, let alone not the son of the current president, Biden. And who cares about nobodies?
“Would you see a similar prosecution under a DJT/ Bill Barr DOJ? Again, a resounding “No”. Had Eric or Don Jr. been accused of tax violations or lying on a gun registration form that case would have shut down before it saw the light of day! And we probably wouldn’t have seen a peep about it in one of your columns.”
Actually, we would. Mainly because of the public pressure exerted by those in the media, by politicians, by the Democratic-favored sycophants in the DoJ, and by those who simply despise Donald Trump and suffer from incurable Trump Derangement Syndrome, IMO. In case you had forgotten, “Mad Max”ine Waters (my apologies for Mel Gibson and the role he played through three excellent films, although Beyond Thunderdome wasn’t that great compare to the first two films but was pretty decent nonetheless) was calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump even before he was sworn into office.
Well Jonathan, Little Tony Blinken’s 51 Intelligence Officials held strong for the 2020 election and it worked brilliantly to help get Lunch Box Joe elected and get Blinken the Secretary of State job. The greatest orchestration of election interference in American history IMHO. Who cares if they disclose that the laptop was real in Hunter’s federal trial. It doesn’t matter now. The mainstream media will collectively sigh and move on. Mission accomplished.
This was not written by Turley.
It is a deliberate distortion of the court’s ruling.
The judge has allowed the laptop evidence to be used only to the extent that it shows Biden’s drug use and gun ownership, which is what the trial is about, but makes no ruling on whether the laptop is “real”. The laptop evidence cannot be used for any other purpose. The judge also ruled that the defense is free to contest the evidence on the laptop. The ruling says nothing about the authenticity of laptop content related to any alleged foreign dealings.
The prosecution is quite deliberately conflating the authenticity of the drug use and gun ownership evidence with the other allegations of foreign dealings. The prosecution, and this piece of Murdoch propaganda, are trying to say that since the judge is allowing them to use the laptop evidence for very limited purposes it must be “real” and everything it contains must be authentic.
This claim is categorically false.
It’s real and you know it’s real. They know it’s real, everyone knows it’s real.
Every “bit” of it.
BS
@Anonymi
You are ridiculous, and you influence exactly no one on this particular blog. Gaslight somewhere else, we are all annoyed but that’s it – there will be no wearing down here as with the weaklings on college campuses. Most of us are acclimated to dealing with petulant children such as yourself without much thought because we are actual grownups. Sigh. Yawn. 🙄🙄🙄 No, you can’t have the candy bar.
Lemme see if I understand this post. The gun and drug items on the laptop are real and actual, but all the rest is Russian disinformation? Got it. There are ‘true believers’ and then there are “TRUE BELIEVERS’. There are also paid trolls.
If soldiers agree with a civilian, that war is right course of action to take, then is the civilian vindicated?
If the civilian wants a war, that civilian should enlist and become a solider to fight the war or send their children or grandchildren to war.
So what you’re saying is that all of the millions of American civilians who supported the war efforts in Europe and the Pacific should have fought in the war? What about children of soldiers? What about an octogenerarian vegetarian?
Then: The laptop is a conspiracy theory.
Now: That conspiracy theory is a conspiracy theory.
Dizzy yet?
Note: Finger on the trigger. Further evidence of gross negligence and irresponsibility.
@Janice
I caught that, too. Dude is a privileged moron.
Evidence doesn’t matter. There is lots of evidence that Putin deserves to be hanged, but his supporters ignore this evidence. Same with American politicians.
Biden deserves to be hung. He is a traitor, and his actions have caused tremendous deaths in Ukraine, Russia., the Middle East and Afghanistan. His actions impoverish working families and future generations. Only the Stupid think otherwise.
Have no fear, Gigi will soon be here to tell us how NO NO NO this is really all about Trump.
My thoughts exactly. The trolls are off and running.
As far as Hunter Biden’s laptop is concerned, I guess that since we now know it’s real (I mean it quacks like a laptop, walks like a laptop, looks like a laptop. Probably has sequined letters on the front saying “Hunter’s Laptop”), we now need to figure out what the backup legal plan is.
I vote for the breakthrough theory that the Russians managed to get into a alternate universe and steal the laptop from an evil Hunter Biden (you know Hunter 2) and brought it back to our universe and substituted it for Hunter 1’s laptop. That should just about cover all the bases.
Joy Ann Reid would agree with you.
She said they rewrote some of her blog posts that way.
Mainstream media covered for her. She got to keep her job.
So. It’s time to get rid of the bidens.: after all, the ends always justify the means with this crowd.
If it’s a conspiracy theory, the Justice Department should arrest all 51 conspirators – the intelligence officials who lied and said it was likely Russian disinformation, just before the 2020 election.
This looks more like a last ditch effort by the same leftists in the Intelligence Services to throw Biden under the bus. They can read poll numbers as well as anyone, and Trump’s polling is getting beyond the point that covert cheating could be viable.
Biden’s going to choke badly on the first debate (maybe his meds will be off?) and the Dems will 25th him if only to get Dr Jill out of the way for a replacement candidate
That’s not what “conspiracy theory” means. A conspiracy theory is a theory that a conspiracy exists. In this case, the theory was that the laptop was a conspiracy between Russia and Giuliani; they were the supposed conspirators, and the ex-intelligence officials bought into it.
Also, they did not lie. They never claimed to have any knowledge that the laptop was a Russian plant, they just said that based on their experience this is the sort of thing the Russians would be likely to do. They were explicit that it was speculation, not based on information that was not public.
“they did not lie.”
The hell they didn’t.
That weaselly piece of garbage was textbook political propaganda. Which is disseminated to deceive. Which is a big, fat lie.
I don’t like war either and a negotiated peace is probably the most rational thing that could be accomplished at this time. Even if the taste of it is foul.
The time to have prevented this war was in early 2022 when it was obvious to our intelligence agencies that the Russian were going to move. Imagine if we had moved massive amounts of air defence weaponry into Ukraine prewar, and anti ship missiles all along the Ukrainian Black Sea coast instead of just saying “don’t”. Just imagine those 20 mile+ traffic jams of Russian Trucks just begging for some air interdiction missions. They would have made the “highway of death’ in Kuwait look like child’s play.
Now your options are peace to stop the slaughter, then admission of Ukraine to NATO and a flood of equipment and troops into the remainder of Ukraine. The cost to Russia for no NATO in Ukraine is total withdrawal from Ukraine. If no Russian withdrawal from Ukraine then the remainder of Ukraine is in NATO. Also flood the market with oil. Russia is a heavily armed gas station masquerading as a county.
What the hell good are intelligence agencies when you know what’s coming and sit on your ass and watch it happen and then suddenly decide “Uh maybe we should do something”.
Thats like the Western Approaches Command in WW2 being able to read the Enigma messages and then still steer the convoys right into the wolfpacks instead of routing them away and sending hunter killer groups after the u-boats.
–“What the hell good are intelligence agencies when you know what’s coming and sit on your ass and watch it happen and then suddenly decide “Uh maybe we should do something”. Perhaps they are all in on it, helping the makers of the war machines/weapons/etc. get even richer, and more powerful?
An unstable Putin with nothing to lose with his finger on the nuke trigger and our leaderships utter lack of stones puts a quick stop to any of this.
Hunter is an international extortionist blackmailer apparently. They were after him in Ukraine but Joe stopped them and said so in his confession.
So it is and the crimes of Hunter were not committed in the usa so good luck…
However they were committed using US tax dollars.
Q: Why did they let him get away with defying a subpoena?
Because they’re wimps. Spineless, and balless.
Why did who let him get away? The House could hold him in contempt, but that’s all; it couldn’t punish him for it, and the DOJ would have refused to prosecute.
DOJ: “a conspiracy theory with no supporting evidence.” Interestingly, that’s also a perfect description of the Bragg case.
So if the DOJ now admits that the laptop is authentic does that open the door for the real President to make his claim of election interference in 2020? Fall of the cabal!
It can snowball now into Joe’s threat to withhold funds from Ukraine unless the Burisma prosecutor was fired. Then all the underbelly of the Clinton-Obama grifting and color-revolution in Ukraine could be exposed. Hillary can’t allow that.
What claim? Who “interfered” and what does he get for proving it? No crime was committed. Influencing voters is not a crime. Even if he could have proved it immediately after the election it wouldn’t have affected the result.
The FBI discounted the laptop and failed to disclose its authenticity. They also failed to enforce and prosecute numerous crimes by Hunter, tax evasion, foreign agent, gun possession, Man act and many more. I would have to believe failure to disclose and enforce would make complicity, same as assisting illegal immigrants in their invasion. Numerous reports out regarding Biden voters and their support if the laptop had been reported as factual. Their steal numbers would not have worked then.
NOW it time to get rid of old Joe
While we’re on the topic of Russian disinformation, it remains shocking that Hilary was able to promote the dossier to our government and the public for years. She continues to rail about the 2016 election.
Has she testified anywhere about her activities? TV interviews don’t count.
Nancy’s investigations of Trump and impeachment were historical events. The laptop disinformation campaign and the hiding of the Bidens’ international profits are also appalling. Not to mention their lawfare campaign.
I found an email from a friend in 2017 stating that there were no paid organizers of protests of Trump’s election; that theory had been debunked by Politico.
What else will we discover that has been hidden from us? I feel like I’ve been living in the book, 1984. If we have more election pipes bursting and last-minute suitcases of ballots, we’ll never know. I’ve always been an independent, but it’s hard to not to see who’s doing this.
In my opinion, anyone (and I do mean anyone) that pushed the morally bankrupt laptop is a Russian disinformation campaign is a bald-faced liar, a willing propaganda tool of the Democratic Party, willfully ignorant to the point of being completely brainwashed or just plain stupid, yes stupid. I suppose there are some internet trolls out there that are all the above.
When are all the political left’s liars going to understand that the ends don’t justify the means.