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.
Professor Turley seems to be the one who is trying to fool everyone else about the laptop. It’s obvious he has done no research or delved into the details about the laptop, its chain of custody and the difference between data and a hard drive.
The FBI agent’s testimony is useless. She had little knowledge of how metadata can be stored and did zero analysis on the laptop. Just saying the “laptop has been verified” does not mean the entirety of its contents have been verified. Like the iCloud backup. Contrary to popular belief it is not true that all the data was backed to hunter’s iCloud account. It’s also not been verified that the laptop has not been tampered with. Professor Turley is just one in a long line of credulous “reporters” spreading the false claim that the hunter Biden laptop has been authenticated. The majority of its contents cannot be verified. Only a few emails and files have and apparently that is enough for Turley and the many others who have no idea how data can be manipulated and disseminated take it for granted and without question.
Here is a better take on the issue. One much more in depth than Turley ever would dare to into,
“ While everyone was focusing on Jensen’s testimony yesterday, Zoe Kestan actually gave far more interesting — and useful, for assessing the reliability of his data — testimony about Hunter’s digital life. She described, for example, that fairly early in their relationship, Hunter “sent me images of his credit card and asked me to call hotels and find somewhere for us to stay that night.” Kasten described that Hunter would get 5-minute codes and send them to her and to drug dealers so they could pull money from his ATM without his ATM card. She described how, sometime around March 2018, the two went together to drop broken devices off at an Apple store, but he left and she finished that process.
She testified he lost maybe 5 or 6 phones in the period they were in a relationship, a period intermittently spanning a year (though I think this might be high). She described trying to locate him once by logging into his bank account (the credentials for which were on her machine) to see where he was withdrawing money from an ATM. She described that he would do his business from her laptop.
This is just one person! And she had the means to totally pwn his life. As, too, undoubtedly, some of the drug dealers who supported his habit.
This is the kind of thing I’ve focused on for a long time. In the depths of his addiction, Hunter Biden exercised almost no digital security, meaning his girlfriends, his drug dealers, his sex workers, and even the junkies he partied with all had easy means to compromise his devices. And every time Hunter lost a device — the five to six Kasten testified to, the seven or so laptops he had over that year, two more phones she wouldn’t have known about — every single time, it would present the opportunity for someone to take over his digital identity as a bunch of right wing Trump supporters have since and tamper with it.“
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/06/06/how-to-think-about-the-hunter-biden-laptop/
It’s something to really think about. Here we have Turley and the prosecution focusing so much on Hunter’s addiction and his haphazard lifestyle and reckless spending of obscene amounts of money every day. They really hammer that in to the readers. What they apparently don’t know or wont’ tell you is that Hunter had more than one laptop and often gave access to multiple people including dealers to his accounts so they could withdraw money directly from his accounts. He went through multiple laptops and phones in just one year and he exercise extremely poor digital security. That makes it extremely easy for anyone to tamper with data.
The laptop everyone, including Turley, keeps talking about is one of many. That it has been authenticated does not mean the entirety of its contents have been. The FBI agent cannot say whether that is true. Only that the laptop the physical device is indeed Hunter’s but the data is another matter.
“It’s also not been verified that the laptop has not been tampered with.” Does Hunter Biden and his attorneys have any evidence that the laptop has been “tampered with”?
Didn’t the FBI specialists testify this week that it has *not* been tampered with?
No, they did it testify it has NOT been. The agent did not do an analysis of the laptop. She admitted she did not do anything to it. She’s not cybersecurity expert.
OldManFromKS,
The prosecution is using data from the laptop that was directly extracted by a FBI forensic expert in 2019.
The FBI agent on the stand at the trial was not that expert. But she was reporting that FBI forensic expert’s findings or reporting.
Upstate, the prosecution did not have the entirety of the data. They did not mention that for a reason.
No, but it’s more likely the FBI does. But here is a more in-depth analysis,
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/02/01/the-hunter-biden-laptop-two-carts-before-the-horse/
And this one explains the possible tampering,
https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/11/18/what-that-report-purportedly-authenticating-the-hunter-biden-laptop-really-said/
All George has proven is that the Empty Wheel is an untrustworthy spin doctor site. George’s empty head makes him copy and paste without thinking.
S. Meyer,
The prosecution is using data from the laptop that was directly extracted by a FBI forensic expert in 2019. The FBI agent on the stand may of not been that expert, but reporting what the forensic expert reported to her.
Do you have a link to the chain of custody verification?
S. Meyer,
Since you don’t have the ability to grasp serious analysis that is full of details. Your first instinct is to dismiss it because you don’t have the capacity to understand it.
Marcy Wheeler is a well researched and articulate analyst that enjoys getting into all the details about a case. She’s very good.
I know you don’t have the ability to understand higher levels of analysis. It’s evident in your rambling and incoherent style of writing.
“Since you don’t have the ability to grasp serious”
George, no one seriously believes what you say about me, but everyone knows it is true about you. Marcy Wheeler is a spin doctor, so she has a mind for spin but is not concerned about the truth. If you understood her, you would be anxious to debate what she says, but you can’t. All you can do is copy and paste.
I’m waiting for you to extract her ideas and put them into debate. The last time you tried, I showed you she didn’t say what you thought. You should give up on things requiring intellect and play games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey. You will act as the donkey.
S. Meyer,
“ If you understood her, you would be anxious to debate what she says, but you can’t. All you can do is copy and paste.”
I AM anxious to debate what she says. YOU don’t want to because it’s too complicated for you. You dismiss it as “spin” because you’re not capable of holding a rational discussion.
If you can’t understand what she is saying how can you hold a debate?
You don’t want to discuss her analysis because you can’t grasp her level of detail. Instead of trying you insult your way out.
“I AM anxious to debate what she says. YOU don’t want to “
Go ahead George, I am waiting. Tell us in your own words what she said I might have a disagreement with, and then provide a link with a short quote from the link so we know what you are referring to.
New George, this is what you said, “I AM anxious to debate what she says. YOU don’t want to because it’s too cmplicated for you.”
I have been waiting for the debate for 3 days. Are you stalling?
New George Marcy Wheeler and I are still waiting for you to fulfill your challenge. It’s been days for you to prepare but you ran away like the coward you are. That is what ignorant and arrogant people are forced to do.
We discussed J6 and you ran away from that as well. https://jonathanturley.org/2024/06/11/i-take-responsibility-pelosi-captured-on-previously-undisclosed-tape-admitting-that-she-was-responsible-for-lack-of-security-precautions-on-january-6th/comment-page-1/#comment-2411637
We can’t forget how you don’t even know what Sharia Law is nor do you know much about the NT or OT. You are ignorant.
New George, I continue to wait for you to fulfill your challenge on Marcy Wheeler. Yet, over the days, you have not responded to the challenge you made. Nevertheless, you continue to show the same ignorance and challenges on new topics, including but not limited to Sharia Law, the OT and the NT.
You remain ignorant and arrogant, something most people on the list already recognize.
George, I am still waiting. This time is like the other times before when you played the part of an A$$ running away.
Present your idea(s) from Wheeler and explain how they matter and fit into the normal judicial process. Then, provide the link to Wheeler and a short quote to locate what she said.
It must be hard for you to be as Stupid as you are while believing you are brilliant.
New George, you made a challenge. I accepted. You ran away. Along with being Stupid, you are a coward. I am waiting for you to fulfill your part of the challenge.
New George, I’m impressed by the amount of time you devoted to responding to the challenge you gave me. It’s great to see you putting effort into changing your image from “stupid” to something better. There are only a few short paragraphs involved, so the two days you already spent demonstrate your devotion to truth and accuracy.
Edwardmahl,
Here is an example how a Burisma email was manipulated by Rudy’s team: https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/12/01/hunter-biden-gets-a-step-closer-to-vindicating-twitters-takedown-decision/
I didn’t bother to read New George’s entire post. He starts bad and gets worse. If one wants to read the babbling of an idiot, read George.
I want to make it clear that the laptop was verified, and the proof it is authentic is that there are third-party letters, etc., which are all true. If the Bidens think something is not true, they can tell us, but they don’t because it will confirm that they are liars.
S. Meyer, yes the devise was verified nobody is questioning that. What has not been fully verified is the data within the hard drive. Not all of the data in it was backed up in his iCloud account.
George, you are an idiot. That things are not in iCloud doesn’t make the computer ‘unverified.’ Everything off the computer used in the case can be contested, but with so much verification, everything written on the computer is almost certainly original to the disc. I don’t know anything that will or can be contested, but you make yourself look foolish because you lack the critical thinking skills to opine on these subjects.
S. Meyer,
“ everything written on the computer is almost certainly original to the disc.”
“Almost certainly” is not 100% certain. The FBI has not verified that 100% of the contents in the hard drive have not been tampered with.
The device, the laptop, not the all of the data in it , is confirmed to be his.
“ I don’t know anything that will or can be contested, ”
Yes, you don’t know. Which means you can’t know for sure if the data has been tampered with. That’s the point.
Can you imagine if someone tried to authenticate all of Michael Cohen’s evidence by picking out several things he has said that are not false?
This is basically what – “The LAPTOP HAS BEEN AUTHENTICATED” amounts to.
“Almost certainly” is not 100% certain. The FBI has not verified that 100% of the contents in the hard drive have not been tampered with.”
George, you are really Stupid. There is no such thing as 100% certainty, but there is no reasonable doubt that the contents released against Hunter are original and untampered. Statements that were made otherwise were disproven.
“That’s the point.”
The only point you have is the one on your head. It leaves a lot of dead space.
S. Meyer, that is not how authentication works, legally.
“that”
What is not how authentication works? I didn’t describe how authentication works.
Start over and try using a combination of nouns and verbs instead of pronouns.
Yes! Precisely. Turley failed to include Jensen’s testimony that she did not review any emails other than those provided to her by prosecutors. Thus, her testimony is completely useless to draw any conclusions regarding the authenticity of any other content on the laptop, let alone any summary of the laptop as a whole. In what world can any lawyer conclude such an exercise sufficiently establishes the authenticity of all content on the laptop?
As Professor Turley should know, FRE 901 is specific to the evidence presented at trial, so unless the WHOLE LAPTOP was introduced into evidence, then no conclusion can be drawn regarding the authenticity of content not used at trial.
Unfortunately, Professor Turley’s articles have dumbed down for a Fox audience, however, and they lack any form of legal analysis. Worse, they make sweeping conclusions, like “Evidence at trial authenticated the laptop!,” which is legally and factually incorrect.
postscript.
Any word on Special Counsel Hur’s missing audio (video?) files of President Biden’s interview concerning retention of ‘classified documents’ .. . over the past 50 years?
*I want to compare them with recent printed ‘transcript’ media reports . .. etc., etc.
Dear Mr. Turley, I am not sure why you would have expected any other response from the Left-wing media and their cohorts regarding the laptop computer. There is no longer a “middle-ground” relating to anything in Washington, D.C. Anything the Republicans do is trashed and vilified while the Democrats are given a pass. This is a great example of the Media’s bias. What one wouldn’t give to hear the Left-wing admit they were wrong not only in this instance but in many others. Will Hell freeze over soon? I doubt it.
Let’s point out that in regards to Hunter’s legal issues, there is no freak out on the Democrats side, no cries of abuse of power, no bashing the justice system, no comparing the trail to Soviet style kangaroo courts.
Let this be a lesson that one side of the political divide still has dignity.
Dignity?
They are staying mum on the trial as they do not want to attract attention to it.
They are in a panic, so much so, Democrat strategist James Carville is calling on MSM to give slanted coverage on Trump to defeat him. They cannot win on Biden’s own merit.
And you call that dignity?
You can’t make it up, Hot Dignity Dog! What a putz Sambo is!
Horse shit, Sammy. They are all crying that Hunter wouldn’t be prosecuted if he wasnt Bidens son. And making excuses. And praying for jury nullification. and questioning the justice system. And saying there is no evidence
Idiot
No bashing the justice department! Let’s think about that, slow walking tax fraud to surpass the statute of limitations, not pursuing the man act for transporting hookers across state lines, cocaine possession, drug paraphernalia possession, not pursuing registration as a foreign agent …sweetheart deal before an astute judge shat on their head. Goodnight Sambo, sleep tight!
Thank You JT/DS/KO
The laptop-as-Russian-disinformation campaign, in other third world countries, would be known as propaganda. Please remind me again who or what is a threat to democracy?
Enigma, in line with my prior comment, I read the article below.
https://dailycaller.com/2024/06/06/victor-davis-hanson-trump-prosecutions-biden-neutral/
I don’t subscribe to the Daily Caller, but I do listen to Victor Davis Hanson. His opinion pieces are invariably correct and provide data to prove his point. I got to this piece through a consolidator, though a Google search might never lead you to this article.
Yes, it is known that Biden is involved in Trump’s prosecutions. Some might deny it, but in the future, many will say, why didn’t I see it earlier on my Google search? You have the answer and a method to keep yourself enlightened. Use it.
S. Meyer,
I too read or listen to Victor Davis Hanson.
VDH is a great commentator, a true historian and the heir apparent to Charles Krauthammer.
If it was a Trump Jr. laptop, the same media would have shown
every single photo, text, document, etc. thousands of times
never acting like they doubted it even once.
All remarkably redolent of late Soviet mendacity.o
Fran👍paving the way!
A bit of gearhead humor
I think many of the voters were in on the trick as well, sadly. But some, hopefully, will find this quite troubling.
A nation is only as good as the people who live there
Agreed.
Unfortunately, here in the US, we have a number of people who think cutting off healthy body organs is a good idea, chemical castration is a good idea, support pornography in elementary schools, anti-semitism is okay, no cash bail is a good idea, open borders are a good idea, interfering in a parents relationship with their own child is a good idea etc.
The rest of us normal people look at them and wonder what is wrong with them and we can see the harm they are causing to our once great nation.
“our once great nation”
Stolen from Natives, built by slaves
ruled by those with most of the money
Here is an example for you, In Portland, the Intifada Begins in Kindergarten
https://www.city-journal.org/article/in-portland-the-intifada-begins-in-kindergarten
Nothing says quality public education like teaching kindergarteners to second graders to chant “From the River to the Sea.”
Two things stand out to me.
First of all it’s obvious that the 51 used language that left them absolved of being held accountable by saying that the laptop “has the markings or makings of Russian intelligence”, not that based on their experience and expertise that IT IS so.
Secondly, these are the same people that want to set up bureaucratic structures to ban misinformation!!! It is Orwellian.
A close reading of the letter the 51 intel types sent shows that it is worse than most commentators recognize. On the second page, they abandon any pretence that they are merely warning of possible Russian inerference, based on so-called hallmarks. They state:
“Our view that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue is consistent with two other significant data points as well….”
Gone is any mere suspicion of possible involvment.
Today, of course, if they bother to speak, they claim they were simply urging caution about possible Russian involvement. That defense of the letter is as dishonest as the letter itself.
Shades of The Hilda Beast: the MSM are indeed irredeemables.
I was for the laptop before I was against the laptop. OH! So now it’s real.
The part I find most disgusting is that any of these “intelligence” agents who signed on to that notorious letter still have any security clearance. Every one should be summarily revoked for lying to the American public. If there was ever a case of election interference, this was it.
Regarding the concept of these “intelligence agents” being able to silence discussions in the press and social media outlets: They should not be denied the right to speak. But that right should be limited to allowing them to speak their ideas, not to silence others who present opposing viewpoints. And they should be liable for and held accountable for false statements to the public.
Hate to tell you Kevin, but the age of accountability for government officials is long gone. Remember Hillary? She made $100,000 of a one-thousand-dollar investment. She sold a big percentage of our nuclear materials for a “donation” to the Clinton Slush Fund. Accountability? Please, let’s get real.
I want to give a shout out 🇺🇲 to all the truth warriors on this blog, who never caved in to the anti-Trump, anti-America stooges. Well done! 👏
Since they have no shame, they will never apologize. They’ll simply remain anonymous, or adopt new ID’s, like “Everyone”.
OLLY,
Thank you as well.
It is not hard to defeat them. All we have to do is stick to the facts, maintain our common sense, logic, seek out different but reliable sources, question narratives, and believe our own eyes and ears.
Thanks Olly. Let’s all not forget those who held strong against all of the Covid b.s. too.
Thanks Olly. Let’s all not forget those who held strong against all of the Covid b.s. too. It was great seeing cockroach Fauci get ripped.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
They knew they were lying. We knew they were lying. They knew we knew they were lying. They carried the bumbling, dishonest, corrupt Biden over the finish line with all of his bumbling, dishonest, corrupt family to achieve their purpose, to get Trump out of office.
The sad thing is, the press has always been dishonest. They are just no longer able to maintain the pretense of honesty that sustained them for a few decades. They write their slanted, biased stories now aimed solely at the stupid, the impressionable, and the complicit.
Whose opinions of Zelenksy should matter more: those of anonymous pro-Russian trolls, or those of D-Day veterans?
The 103 year old man mistook Zelensky for Patton. He then turned to Biden and thanked him for bringing us the interstate highway system
The only anonymous pro-Russian trolls are the ones in your head.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-returns-white-house-will-happen-americas-intelligence-agencies-rcna147179
And of course the same cultural-Marxist traitors on the front-end of the destroy Trump operation, are already running their next anti-Trump op. I saw a brief clip yesterday of Strzok whining he and other “intel” folks might have to flee the country if Trump is elected. These traitors won’t ever receive what they deserve. At least not in this life.
OLLY,
They keep saying they will leave the country if Trump gets elected but they never do.
I would question why they dont keep their word, but we all know the answer to that.
I saw Jordan asking Garfuk if Paige and Pzit were getting windfall from a federal lawsuit they filed over FBI releasing their love messages. These FBI agents that participated in this should be in prison, Comey on down. It’s coming.
It was McCabe (another of the interchangeable d-bags) who claimed the FBI was scared. It was laughable.
Unless Strzok said the same thing. Then it’s a coordinated campaign.