Below is my column in Fox.com on the authentication of Hunter Biden’s laptop in the Delaware trial. The government has denounced the Russian disinformation claims as a “conspiracy theory” and put on evidence that there is no evidence of tampering with the laptop. The FBI declared the laptop to be “real” and “authentic” and the court agreed. It was introduced as evidence before many reporters who previously embraced the debunked “conspiracy theory.” As discussed below, Houdini’s elephant was just revealed on stage and most of the audience looked away.
Here is the column:
Watching the coverage this week out of Delaware was like finding oneself in a parallel universe. There were ABC, NBC, CBS, the Washington Post and other news outlets reporting matter-of-factly that the Hunter Biden laptop showed no evidence of tampering and was both real and authentic.
These are the same outlets, and some of the same reporters, who eagerly spread the false claims that the laptop was “Russian disinformation.”
Yet, what followed the testimony of FBI agent Erika Jensen was absolute crickets. There was no effort to track down the signatories of the now-debunked letter from former intelligence officials just before the election. In the letter, figures such as Leon Panetta, former CIA director in the Obama administration, claimed that the laptop had all the markings of a Russian disinformation effort by intelligence services. (Panetta continued to make the assertion even in late 2023 in pushing what the federal government is now calling a “conspiracy theory.”)
There was no attempt by the media to confront associates of the Biden campaign (including now Secretary of State Antony Blinken) who pushed a long effort to get former intelligence officials to sign a letter.
There was no attempt to question President Joe Biden, who made this false claim in the presidential election to deflect any questions about the evidence of corrupt influence peddling on the laptop.
Years ago, I wrote that the Biden campaign had pulled off the single greatest political trick in history. As I wrote back then, the key to this Houdini-esque trick was to get the media to invest in the deception like audience members called to the stage.
Houdini used to make his elephant Jennifer disappear on stage every night because he knew that the audience wanted her to disappear. They were part of the act. The Bidens made the media part of the act, and these reporters have to back the illusion or admit that they were part of the deception.
They are all laptop deniers, but they know that there are few who will call them to account for their conspiracy theory. Rather, it is social media where readers can see videos of leading media claiming that the laptop is the work of Russian intelligence.
In 2020, CBS News’ Lesley Stahl literally laughed mockingly at then-President Donald Trump when he raised the Hunter Biden laptop and what it revealed about the Bidens.
Figures like former Chief of Staff at the CIA and Department of Defense Jeremy Bash, who told MSNBC that the laptop “looked like Russian intelligence” and “walked like Russian intelligence.” He dismissed the relevance of the laptop before the election by declaring that “this effort by Rudy Giuliani and the New York Post and Steve Bannon to cook up supposed dirt on Joe Biden looks like a classic, Russian playbook disinformation campaign.”
Bash added that it made Trump an effective agent of Russian intelligence since he kept referencing the laptop: “[when] Rudy Giuliani suddenly comes forward with these mysteriously created emails, probably hacked through a Russian intelligence operation, we have to acknowledge the fact that the President of the United States is supporting, is condoning, is welcoming a Russian intelligence operation in 2020. … This is collusion in plain sight.”
Bash, like others behind the conspiracy theory, was later given an intelligence position by Biden.
The New York Times and The Washington Post both eventually verified Hunter Biden’s laptop after big tech dismissed the New York Post’s bombshell reporting during the 2020 presidential election. The Post reporting was famously censored by Twitter ahead of the 2020 election.
CNN’s Alex Marquardt told viewers, “We do know it is a very active Russian campaign.”
Indeed, the Washington Post has continued to suggest that this reporting was accurate. One of the leading purveyors of this false story was the Post’s Philip Bump, who slammed the New York Post for its now proven Hunter Biden laptop story.
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.”
After Bump had a meltdown in an interview when confronted over past false claims, I wrote a column about the litany of such false claims. The Post surprised many of us by issuing a statement that they stood by all of Bump’s reporting, including the laptop conspiracy theory. That was in August 2023.
Of course, this trick would not have been possible without the assistance of 50 former intelligence officials who were reportedly organized through Clinton campaign associates to issue the infamous letter.
These figures then continued to spread the false claim.
Former CIA Director John Brennan, one of the 50 who signed the letter, also claimed that the laptop bore “the hallmarks of Russian disinformation.”
James Clapper, a former director of National Intelligence and CNN analyst, said the laptop was “classic, textbook Soviet, Russian tradecraft at work.”
Members of Congress also repeated the false claims, including Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., who told the media not to join Giuliani as a “vehicle for Russian disinformation.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, insisted that the laptop was clearly “Kremlin propaganda.”
This long-debunked claim was even recently repeated in Congress by Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., who claimed that the laptop could not be authenticated even though it was just authenticated and introduced in a federal prosecution.
All of those who pushed what the U.S. government is now calling a false “conspiracy theory” have flourished in the wake of Biden’s victory. Intelligence officials like Bash received plum positions while others like Clapper were given media contracts. Schiff is expected to be elected to the Senate and is running, ironically enough, on his record with intelligence investigations of Trump.
Conversely, the New York Post and reporters like Miranda Devine have received no recognition for their work in disclosing the contents and defying attacks from politicians and media alike. While reporters were given a Pulitzer for reporting the now debunked Russian collusion story, Devine and others will never receive a Pulitzer for uncovering the true story behind the laptop.
Devine, the New York Post, and others simply refused to get in on the trick. As is often said, there are some facts simply “too good to check” in the media. The Hunter Biden laptop disappeared from the stage like Houdini’s elephant because the media wanted it to disappear.
The reappearance of the laptop in a Delaware courtroom might be awkward for most people, but not the media or intelligence officials or politicians who pushed the conspiracy theory. After all, they were all in on the trick. It was the voters who were played for chumps.
It is so enlightening to hear the thoughts of Jonathan Turley. He puts his finger on the truth every time.
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Their letter has all the hallmarks of yet another Democrat Party disinformation campaign. Let the guilty be punished and the innocent made whole! Make America Sane Again. Make America Great Again.
FIFTY… read that again .. FIFTY FBI agents signed an affadavit saying that the laptop was Russian propaganda. FBI, DOJ, IRS all need to be disbanded.
Never forget: The laptop doesn’t just implicate Hunter. It implicates his Dad.
They shrug because their objective was achieved: they couped Trump.
They will continue to lie. Why? There are no consequences for it. They are backed by executives at these agencies that would rather back alive than own up to it, correct it, and discipline those involved like executives with principles would. They are an abomination to the very service they believe they are providing.
People need to accept that the media is just another captured institution.
New talking point for the left: the greatest threat to our democracy is the emergence of this type of postfactopseudoinformation.
The plutocracy lies like the female canines they are.
There needs to be a consequence for being a Traitor up to and including the death penalty.
Follow the money to the overturned tables Amen!
Can I get a witness?
They are all shameless.
The federal government that ordered Twitter, Facebook and other media to suppress the truthful NY Post story.
The FBI that seized the laptop and tried to cover up the news.
Politifact
Leslie Stahl CBS News
Ryan Lizza & Natasha Bertrand Politico
Democrat Congressman Adam Schiff
John McLaughlin Bush Acting Director CIA 2004
Michael Hayden Bush CIA Director 2006-2009
Leon Panetta Obama CIA Director 2009-2011
Michael Morell Obama Acting CIA Director 2012-2013
John Brennan Obama CIA Director 2013-2017
35 other CIA higher ups
Jim Clapper Obama Director of National Intelligence
As a retired Army officer I am no longer dismayed at the politicization of the officer corps, I am really angry. Our first Commander in Chief admonished his junior officers to stay out of politics and let the civilians run the government. For generations, we were told as junior officers to keep out of politics and remain faithful only to one party—the United States. Yet now more and more Flag Officers (Generals and Admirals) who should know better are ignoring this age old admonishment. Even retired, we should keep our politics to ourselves. Having a military rank and speaking out means that the average citizen will no longer see our military as politically neutral. The military has the best reputation among other professional peer groups but during the Trump administration many officers have risked that reputation. Stop it. Just because you have the right to say something, doesn’t mean you should. The Constitution was never threatened by former President Trump.
They need too lose their pension and any security clearance they have they are TRAITORS!
If I was still in uniform i would certainly salute you! That would depend of course what rank you were?
It was not a conspiracy…just flat out lies…
It was coordinated. They were all singing from the same song sheet: Russian conspiracy. They didn’t dream that up individually. No way.
Yes, they all blatantly lied. The goal is not merely to deceive people, rather to get them to allow any injustice the corrupt establishment plans to afflict upon him since he “deserves” it.
If there are no repercussions to these types of actions, then how does it ever stop?
Yet this same media does its research & then backflips to highlight inaccuracies -Lies they can them – on VERY important matters of national importance such as how many people attended Trump innauguration. Even with aerial comparison shots to support their investigative reporting.
That industry & those in it is a sham and a joke
The MSM insists That any charge against the Democrat be completely proven and vetted over the course of five to seven years. At that time they will simply say this is old news and needs to be ignored. Charges against the Republican are immediately believed in spread completely. The same is true with the word controversial. This is only applied to anything a Republican says.
Clapper repeated his claim once again, just last week.
Clapper, why stop lying now? Even if the truth slaps you right across your ugly Marxist face?
After Trump Russia collusion, which wasn’t,
The pee tapes, that weren’t,
Hillary’s private server and destruction of evidence non-prosecution,
The scamdemic, lockdowns, masks, social distancing, clot shot deaths and injuries,
After two contrived impeachments,
January 6 insurrection entrapment and political prisoners,
The Mar a Lago SWAT raid,
An imaginary NYC rape verdict,
Hunter’s laptop labeled as Russian misinformation but now it’s authentic,
Ashley Biden’s ‘inappropriate showers’ diary now verified as authentic,
JoeBama unauthorized documents beside Hunter’s beer fridge non prosecution because of senility,
Fani’s vacations on the taxpayer and unconstitutional Jack Smith,
This NYC sham of a kangaroo court conviction,
Trump drawing 100,000 to a NJ rally and Biden a couple dozen in Philly,
I’m pretty sure that can’t make me believe the 2020 election was legit.
Lisa Page admitting Obama’s DOJ telling the FBI not to prosecute Hillary
Not prosecuting Biden for classified document theft when he was a senator and VP
Biden accepting bribes from Ukraine and China
WHAT? WHAT?!!!!! How dare you! We all KNOW that was the most above board, fairest election in human history. As a Chicagoan I can tell you that Democrat vote totals ALWAYS spike between 2 and 4 AM. It’s like the sun rising in the east.
Yeah, right! And Killary Clinton is the most honest and loved religious woman in America?!?!?!
100% agree.
This comment needs to be headline news on every fair media site.
But remember, Biden got over 81 million votes while wearing a mask, a full diaper, and playing video games in his basement.