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 was obvious at the time that the laptop was genuine. Why clutch your pearls about the election interference in 2020 when we have staggering election interference happening right now?
I’m at the point where I feel like, go ahead, steal another election, and enjoy the consequences. Seems to be the only way people learn.
Yes! JT should have some concrete ideas how to confront and deter campaigns from waging deceitful infowarfare as is occurring right now, and in the next 5 months.
A few of us are not OK with finding out only after the election how we’ve been duped.
“A few of us are not OK with finding out only after the election how we’ve been duped.”
PbinCA, you permitted yourself to be duped. You are more interested in dissing Professor Turley than recognizing the truth. You want to create a system where duped persons create that system. Does that make sense?
Better yet would be to make the media pay cash. And also the same for usual suspects who show up for the Democrat Sound Machine.
Challenge the Supreme Court to override or reverse the Sullivan precedent so as to lower the standards slightly to pursue libel and slander against public figures. As soon as you go to the media or papers, you become a public figure. Granted these liars and charlatans have committed crimes and conspiracies for years to decades. Jail would be fine for them but making them pay out cash (not just to their attorneys) would take the stakes several levels higher. Making a rich man poor is the ultimate revenge and none of these co-conspirators seem to be really poor.
It would be difficult but people think a little harder when their treasure comes under threat.
Respond in kind. $83 million for Trump to pay for slandering What’s her name in NY (Was it Jean Carroll or Lewis Carroll) or maybe she was just the Queen of Hearts (off with his head), or $450 million for a fraud crime where no cash was lost and the alleged victims wanted to continue the business arrangement. Or protecting yourself from extortion and becoming the criminal (sic.) Thats almost like killing a criminal who assaults you in your own bodega or on the subway and then you get charged with murder. (I mean that can’t happen can it) Oh I forgot there are differences in Law Enforcement in New York City and Austin, Texas.
I forgot there is a new law standard. Instead of the Constitution there is now Soros Law. Now that is a hill to die on. I might be wary of scaling Point Du Hoc but I would be most willing to carry a torch and pitchfork up to the Soros Castle (He bought out the Frankenstein Family). Who knows what could happen then.
For a lawyer, this is a flaccid approach. JT should be coaching America on how to deter the conniving public fraud that was Blinken’s and Morrell’s falsehood. He should be conceding that it worked in spades to dupe the electorate — in realtime when it counted leading up to the election of their team captain Joe Biden. He should be admitting that the truth about the laptop only had to be suppressed for 3 weeks for the public fraud to work its magic. He should be suggesting what could have been done in those 3 weeks — a counter to the fraud with legal oomph — using fast discovery and compelled testimony.
Instead, all JT can do is bemoan the few pathetic, partisan media diehards who believe the laptop was a Russian plot then, now a nothingburger? All he can do is whine about it long after the fact?
When I joined this website, I thought it to be a place where serious legal thinking and creativity might flourish. Is JT spending too much time over at Fox? He sure seems to have gotten down the aggrieved escapism.
pbinca: I regret that you were unable to add any topic-related substantive commentary here.
I regret that JT was unable to please you or satisfy your need for “serious legal thinking.”
I regret that you believe you could have done a better job than the good professor, –yet fail to establish YOUR OWN legal blog for those very “serious legal think[ers].” Perhaps draw away some of the multiple thousands of worldwide followers that he has attracted.
I regret that I read your comment.
Lin,
I did not read pbinca’s comment but read yours.
So, I got the gist of it.
Yes, people always coming here to whine and cry the good professor does not write about what they want him to, like petulant children they are.
Upstate again with the ‘I don’t read a lot of it, but claim to see the bigger picture’ bias
He/she won’t read this one, either.
It doesn’t have a made up name like UpstateFarmer.
Back into the basket of deplorables you go.
Peanut butter in california, with more of his gibberish about the need for more litigation and tort in America.
Its like he’s not just an attorney, but he is some sort of attorney salesman. Maybe he builds courthouses??? Idk because his ideas make zero practical sense and he knows it.
“Is JT spending too much time over at Fox?”
PbinCA, your statement is plain nasty. Did you say the same when he was on CNN?
Pbninca,
If you are truly wanting to see real legal discussion and serious analysis about the laptop or anything regarding Trump’s and Hunter’s trials you should check out Marcy Wheeler’s site. She’s far more detailed and dives deep into the evidence and discusses real legal issues. Like the laptop issue, she has been on it since the beginning and has much more insight and evidence than professor Turley could ever muster. Take a look at this and see if you agree or not.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/06/06/how-to-think-about-the-hunter-biden-laptop/
This is said by New George who can only paste and copy. The only thing proven is that the Empty Wheel is empty. It is a biased spin site which was proven when ATS was pushing it. He stopped using it as a site because it made him look foolish.
S. Meyer,
Now I understand why New George is such a moron, just looking at that link he think proves anything.
What they fail to mention is the fact the prosecution is using data directly extracted by a FBI forensic expert in 2019. The agent on the stand, she may not been that expert, but is reporting what the expert reporting to her or was in that expert’s report.
The point that, that fake news website is trying to make is she was not THE expert who examined the laptop. That is like saying a General has to conduct his own intelligence analysis of satellite imagery rather than have the G-2 do it.
LMAO this figures
Now we know who gives Svelaz George his opinion.
How many times has turdrunner been laughed out of the stadium for posting brain dead crap that idiot
Emptywheel LOL
Emptyhead is more like it.
I took a look. Isn’t it a little bit late to be legally authenticating the provenance of Hunter’s laptop? Doing that would have mattered more the last 2 weeks BEFORE the 2020 election.
Hunter Derangement Syndrome keeps getting worse. A drug addict lied on a form and got a gun. So put him in prison. Hooray.
And breaking news: the media aren’t trustworthy.
But what about Sleepy-Mastermind Biden? No need to investigate: you could never ever ever put him in prison because of fictitious presidential immunity, an imaginary status promoted by whom exactly? Why bother then.
Maybe the larger concern is supporting an orange dumbbell who has never read the Constitution let alone understands it. Just one example: pressuring Pence to disqualify electors based on an authority not granted to a VP in the Constitution.
I thought a president’s core mission was to uphold and defend the Constitution and not to waddle around it with KFC grease on his face in order to retain power as well as, and more importantly for a gaslighting narcissist, relevance. No?
So put Hunter in prison. Yippy. Law and order. Ultimately I’m glad we can all agree that convicted felons can’t be trusted.
If the media lied about this, what else have they been lying about?
This is why Trump’s fake news statement was so effective.
Everydouche is the booger eating Lawn Boy, by the way.
Everyone-I think the orange dumbbell can read and understand the constitution quite well and he believes in it whereas the doddering, tottering, cadaverous thing that poops in the president’s office thinks of the constitution as a riches to more riches story for his crime family. The cadaverous being has shown mental impairment of the 1st order since the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991. His Moral Cowardice was on clear display then when he melted like a bad piece of cheesecake in response to Thomas’s blast of outrage when the cadaverous being tried to destroy his reputation.
Hey Everydouche
Please define the term “convicted felon” in terms of how it differs from unconvicted felon
The left LIES. The difference between the leftist politician and the leftist dopes on the list is that the leftist politicians are better at lying.
Ronald Regan said trust but verify. Where is the verification of all the tall tales the left tells about Trump? There is no verification by the left, so if one wants to act intelligently, they will never trust what the left has to say. The opposite of what they say is more likely to be true.
Truth is powerful and liberating. This official recognition is excellent but is a drop in the bucket. This administration and their allies, especially the once trusted news agencies is built on a tangle of lies and deception.
For example, just as the children’s story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” the current President of the United States can now barely get through a teleprompter statement. He walks like a toddler and cannot understand basic facts. He is trotted out (occasionally) to read what he is told to read.
He has virtually nothing on his White House schedule and spends more time at his beach front mansion (pretty great for a person living on a government salary). We are to pretend he is our President?
This and many more events that were declared “disinformation” will eventually come to light.
The dwindling and pathetic, once trusted news outlets” still have their loyal followers. Those running them have abandoned journalism and thus their organizations are also losing influence (thankfully).
We are crumbling within and if we as a nation do not quickly recognize this threat, we will lose this nation. But isn’t that the objective of those whose intent is to destroy western civilization?
Dear Prof Turley,
I’m just happy someone, anyone, has finally at long last found the laptop. I’ve been looking for it since 2019. I asked everybody; ‘Do You Know Where the Laptop Is? Or not? .. . crickets.
Quite a ‘coup’. .. makes J6 look like a picnic.
*Freudian slip-typo alert .. . that you should leave *unchanged*:
“In the letter, figures such as Leon Panetta, former CIA director in the Obama administration, claimed that the *letter* had all the markings of a Russian disinformation effort by intelligence services.”
Only the weak minded cult of the democrats believed the laptop was Russian disinformation. You would have thought after 3 years of politicians like Spartacus yelling Russia Russia Russia would have wised them up. They’ve already started their latest propaganda call “Trump will be a tyrant”, “Trump will never leave office”, “We may have to leave the country because he will retaliate”. Sadly the weak minded democrat voters will get onboard and believe the BS.
Another fine example of election interference.
And yes, MSM, the Deep State, were all in on the trick.
Just read Democrat trategist James Carville is calling for MSM to give slanted coverage on Trump in order to defeat him in November, going as far as saying,
“F!ck your objectivity. The real objectivity in this country right now is we’re either going to have a Constitution or we’re not.”
Once again, he cannot say how or why we will not have a Constitution or not.
And, the fact is they cannot win a free and fair election with Biden, and they know it.
It’s eaisier to believe anything other than someone would be stupid enough to lose their laptop with all of that on it.
“ It’s eaisier to believe anything other than someone would be stupid enough to lose their laptop with all of that on it.”
He was a drug addict. How is that not computing with anyone? Turley literally spent entire columns detailing Hunter’s irresponsible lifestyle and drug use. He literally went through several phones and laptops on one year according to other sources. Anyone could have gained access to his accounts or data and tampered with it.
Rudy Giuliani made several copies of the hard drive and distributed it to others before the FBI got a hold of it. How do we know it was not tampered by the multiple individuals who got copies.
“He was a drug addict.”
Yesterday you claimed he was not at the time.
Oops
Poor, poor George – there are thousands of people who are drug addicts in prison. Are you suggesting that because he’s an addict, he’s not responsible for anything? Surely, you jest. And, guess what, the FBI analyzed the laptop and has authenticated that there is no sign of tampering. But you know that, you’re just babbling to babble.
Biden got away with that laptop magic trick in 2020 because Trump made a big mistake. Trump’s refusal to do the 2nd (virtual) debate with Biden meant that tens of millions of suburban mail-in voters never heard the truth at all before they voted. By the time they debated again in person, it was too late. If you are mailing a ballot, you have to be sure it gets there in time, so you can’t wait to near election day. I am convinced that if Trump had done that debate, the election would have been much closer. He might not have won, we will never know, but it would have been much closer to tied in the electoral vote.
Modern mass media journalism does not “report” reality, it creates it, usually along political lines.
That has been true for 100 years.
@Anonymous, I agree 100%! My very first thought was that these 51 should 1) be relieved of ALL SECURITY CLEARANCES, 2) receive reprimands and degraded rank in any retirement benefits received, and 3) prosecuted to the FULL extent of the law. After all, they CONSCIOUSLY and KNOWINGLY INFLUENCED the outcome of the 2020 election.
I agree they should be punished, but how effective a deterrent is that coming 4 years after the fact, when what they did (duping the electorate) only had to work for 3 weeks?
Do you have any ideas for how to immediately confront, expose, and bust up a purposeful falsehood waged by a campaign?…so that the voters go to the polls equipped with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
On a legal analysis site like this, that’s the type of discussion we should be having.
No, we shouldnt, mr endless tort
I am not a laptop denier, it may well be everything Turley purports it to be. I am wary of Turley telling us what the evidence is and there is only one way it can be interpreted which he often does. I tried looking up the actual testimony authenticating the laptop. The best I got was a Newsweek summary of the crossexamination and redirect.
“During cross-examination defense attorney Abbe Lowell asked Jensen, “Did you find out whether any of the files had been tampered with?” Jensen replied, “I did not.” In redirect, which is when the prosecution can question their witness after cross-examination, the prosecution asked if Jensen had seen any evidence of tampering, to which Jensen replied “No.”
Maybe there’s other testimony that outlines the attempts to determine if tampering took place that’s proven to be accurate, I don’t know. I do recall Turley saying a couple weeks ago that one should never draw conclusions after hearing only the prosecutions case without hearing from the defense. Maybe they’ll introduce testimony about the laptop being in the hands of Rudy Guiliani and others? Maybe the pawn shop followed industry standard procedures and erased personal data from the laptop before reselling it? The defense will likely point out chain of evidence issues. I’m willing to accept that it was indeed once Hunter Biden’s laptop. I’ll wait just a bit before accepting that nobody tampered with it without better evidence than the Turley version.
Shut up nerd
Fair enough, but questions about chain of custody is a far cry from “The Russians obviously did it”.
I have seen no evidence the Russians did it, but I haven’t heard the defense yet.
It’s not ‘Turley’s version’ enigma.
Think this through: If Hunter Biden’s laptop was compromised with Russian/Putin disinformation ‘state craft’ .. . well, that’s whole different ball of wax.
“I tried looking up the actual testimony authenticating the laptop. The best I got was a Newsweek summary of the crossexamination and redirect.”
Enigma, have you noticed that Google’s search results have changed over the years? In the past, a search would yield numbered pages, making it easier to navigate through different viewpoints. However, as Google’s algorithm evolved, it started prioritizing certain sources, which some argue lean towards the left. This has led to a situation where one viewpoint (the left) is often found in the more accessible search results, while the less accessible results tend to be from the right, if the algorithm even allows them to exist.
Today, the numbering system no longer exists, so one must plow through pages of similar stories from the same distributors. You will note many NYT Wapo, NPR, Newsweek, etc. articles from the left repeating themselves without information coming from the right (where much of the more accurate information exists.)
It’s understandable that you might feel frustrated or misunderstood when accused of being uninformed, lazy or Stupid. The truth is it might not be entirely your fault. A lot of valuable data doesn’t surface with a simple Google search. It’s not about laziness, it’s about the need to dig deeper.
How can you take control of your information? Conduct a site search.
site: and website URL (no spaces), add a space after URL, type in search term.
Of course, that means you will have to listen to others on the blog who, over time, are invariably found correct. Some of the sites they use might be of help.
Turley mentioned Miranda Devine. While you were discussing the laptop, she was providing accurate information. Another reliable source is Justthenews.com, which you may have dismissed as fake news. I encourage you to read the documents listed in the ‘dig deeper’section, demonstrating how their data was obtained. Take note Phillip Bump doesn’t do that. Take note Phillip Bump is responsible for making many people look Stupid.
If you want another news source that consolidates the news, try the newsletter from
https://www.cuttothenews.com
This news consolidator is close to the center and picks out some news you might miss (center right). You will be given a short piece with a link to where the news came from that you can link to.
Your understanding is shaped by what you read and hear. By exploring news from different perspectives, you can gain a more comprehensive understanding of what is happening.
S. Meyer,
Well said and thank you for trying to help those to navigate to more reliable sources.
Clicking the ‘Like’ is equal to saying ‘Well said’, FYI
Enema-inblackcom said:
“Maybe the pawn shop followed industry standard procedures and erased personal data from the laptop before reselling it?”
Yes, by all means sir, you should reserve judgement.
Until you have a clue what the fvck you are talking about. The laptop was not resold or even prepared for resale. The FBI obtained it from the shop owner. And Giuliani had a copy of the hard drive, not the laptop.
Jeezus at the ignorance displayed here.
And if we all clap really loud, Tinkerbell will come back to life.
Enigmanblack,
You may want to check out Marcy Wheeler’s analysis. She is much more detailed on the issues regarding possible Tampering.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/06/06/how-to-think-about-the-hunter-biden-laptop/
She even links to actual evidence.
Thank you, George. That was an interesting read. We’ll see how much of this the defense brings up.
Well, it is now clear beyond all doubt, that the “conspiracy theory” of the Laptop was in fact a conspiracy to defraud the American voter. The MSM, and the Federal Government were directly involved. The Testimony by Christopher Wray to Congress was in fact false (they knew where the laptop was and they knew it was authentic). As the criminal acts of these folks mount, they are the very ones screaming “Trump is going to imprison his opposition” if elected. We know why now….
One thing I learned as an investigator is that no matter how far you go down a rabbit hole, absence of evidence is not proof of anything, but facts that can be shown to be true, is evidence of the necessary elements needed to establish the truth. Or as Sherlock Holmes said, “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be truth.”
In the matter of Hunter’s laptop, the only conclusion that remains is that penned by Jonathan Turley & reached by the Federal Court, which accepted the laptop as inculpatory evidence against the accused.
Isn’t this election interference? Now that the laptop is officially determined to be “real,” I’m sure that our astute Attorney General Garland is busily investigating. We can anticipate that the 51 and the Bidens and probably some of the cooperating media will soon be facing charges for their conspiracy to defraud the American public and interfere with the 2020 election.
I’m sure that will take place right after the Clintons, Obamas and others are brought to justice for spying on and interfering with the 2016 Trump campaign and buying the Steele dossier and feeding the information contained therein to the FBI and the public. Those charges probably need another 7 months or so of investigating by Garland before he can bring them to a conclusion.
Meanwhile, all Trump investigations, regardless of how specious, will be fast tracked to conclude in the next 5 months.
Regarding Trumps conviction:
If I stole a loaf of bread , would I be convicted on evry slice?
That depends, if all jury members consist of your adversaries it does not matter at all.
If you steal a loaf of bread you will be convicted of robbing the complete bakery.
Old airborne-but what if you sliced each slice into fourths for little bite sized sandwiches. Would that be charge stacking or sandwich stacking. I guess it depends if you are in a kitchen or a courtroom.
ROGER ON THAT,INDICT THEM ALL
GOD HELPUS
There are more than 30 states that are run by Republicans, including GOP run state Attorneys General. What should happen (after all, New York set the standard) is that one or several should indict all 51 signers of that “disinformation” letter for federal election violations. Turn this into the spectacle it deserves.
Ditto. There were operatives within the CIA who organized the retirees in the laptop psy op. They need to pulled out by the roots and fired. Federal public servants, especially those in the CIA who are sworn not to interfere in domestic matters, are in fact public enemies.
The retirees will make excellent witnesses before congressional committees about who within the CIA was involved—or they can be prosecuted like Bannon. What goes around comes around.
Lawyer up, little piggies 🐷🐷🐷
Not just the CIA, Blinken and Jake the Snake Sullivan too