Hunter Biden on April 12th 2016 looking like a gangster – at World Food Program USA! (Photo by Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images for World Food Program USA)
Hunter Biden (1970- ) is the son of Joe Biden who, in turn, is running against Donald Trump for US president in 2020. Hunter Biden is the target of an 11th-hour smear campaign that more than 50 retired US intelligence officials, who have worked for the past four presidents, say “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian intelligence operation”. Game knows game.
Joe Biden has two sons:
- Beau Biden (1969-2015) – served in the Army, fought in Iraq, was Attorney General of Delaware, died of cancer at age 46. He is the one Kamala Harris knew as a fellow state attorney general.
- Hunter Biden (1970- ) – graduated from Yale Law, kicked out of the Navy for cocaine, had a daughter by a stripper, served on various corporate boards and has become a target of right-wing conspiracy theories. He and Christopher Heinz, stepson of John Kerry (who ran for president in 2004), founded an investment firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners.
On December 18th 1972, both sons, his baby girl Naomi and his wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, were in a car accident. His wife and daughter died. Joe Biden remarried in 1977, to Jill Jacobs Biden, his present wife. In 1981 they had a daughter, Ashley. She is still alive.
From January 2009 to January 2017, Hunter Biden was the son of the US vice president.
Since at least 2019, President Trump has been trying to find dirt on Hunter Biden, as the son of his most feared opponent. It is what got Trump impeached in 2019: he tried to hold up foreign aid to Ukraine (an abuse of power) to blackmail its president into announcing an investigation into Hunter Biden. Because Hunter Biden had been on the board of:
Burisma Holdings: a huge natural gas company in Ukraine. Hunter Biden served on its board from 2014 to 2019. He knew nothing about natural gas or Ukraine, but he did know his father, then the US vice president. His father, like other Western leaders, was pushing for an investigation of Burisma for money laundering. Trump claims Joe Biden was trying to protect Burisma and therefore his son. The opposite was true.
Hunter Biden’s laptop – in October 2020, Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon provided Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post the contents of what they said was Hunter Biden’s laptop computer. Since no one outside the Republican Bubble is allowed to see its contents, the White Liberal press cannot report it as fact. But at least two of its emails do seem to be real – the Bidens do not deny that. Neither seem to be the smoking gun of corrupt dealing in Ukraine and China that the right-wing press claims they are, unless you take the word of Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden has had business dealings in Ukraine and China, but there is no evidence that it has affected US foreign policy before Trump became president. Nor does anything suspicious appear in the last 22 years of Joe Biden’s tax returns, which, unlike Trump’s, have been made public.
– Abagond, 2020.
Sources: mainly Google Images, NNDB, BBC and The Economist.
See also:
- Joe Biden
- Donald Trump
- conspiracy theory
- The impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump
- The Republican bubble
- Steve Bannon
- Rudy Giuliani – written in 2007. He has declined massively since.
- Rupert Murdoch
- Fox News – written in 2015. It has since degenerated into outright propaganda.
- White Liberals
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Abagond 
@ Abagond
“On December 18th 1972, Joe Biden was in a car crash with his sons, his baby girl Naomi and his wife, Neilia Hunter Biden.”
Slight correction: Joe Biden was not in the car crash. He was in DC, having just won his first national election, making preparations for beginning work in January. His wife and the children were still in Delaware, getting ready for Christmas.
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“His father, like other Western leaders, was pushing for an investigation of Burisma…”
Surely you jest. Biden open bragged about getting the investigation shut down by using a large sum of US taxpayer money as leverage.
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@ Solitaire
Thanks.
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@ The Truth
Do you have a quote or source for that?
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https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/463307-solomon-these-once-secret-memos-cast-doubt-on-joe-bidens-ukraine-story
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something even sadder about the accident that killed biden’s first wife and daughter – biden has repeatedly blamed it on a drunk truck driver
the facts – mrs biden caused the accident when she ran a stop sign, and the other driver was NOT drunk
snopes says there is no evidence the truck driver was drunk, nor was he charged with it, but the local people believed he was – they are giving biden too much slack here, in my opinion, but you can read their account yourself
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-lie-wife-killed-drunk-driver/
i voted for biden because bernie asked me to – but he was close to my last preference of all the candidates who offered themselves this cycle
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The Hunter emails between him and his dad show a loving father so I don’t see how that hurts Joe Biden.
Other emails appear to be manufactured.
Maybe one of the reasons Putin supports Trump is he sees him as less likely to destabilize the Middle East which neo-liberal and neo-cons have done a marvelous job of over the last 20 years.
China likely can’t wait for Trump to get kicked out of office.
The political class does make money offering access regardless of political party so if Hunter or the Biden family did enrich themselves that is not unique to them.
Thats how the corporatacracy works, a revolving door between retired generals, politicians, ceo’s, the media ect selling access and enriching themselves at the expense of us common people.
That political class doesn’t need to hide money in off shore accounts like in Panama when they can create their own foundations and get richer here that way.
When “public servants” become millionaire’s through “serving” thats a problem.
If Trump and company do loose the election he and his family will profit from the political connections they have made over the last four years.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-2020-joe-biden-income-20190709-story.html
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Thanks for the breakdown, Abagond. The only part that troubles me is “had a daughter by a stripper”. That this statement is meant (not by you) to demean him is awful. Mother and daughter are two human beings. Weaponizing them in this way just feels wrong.
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@Abagond…”He knew nothing about natural gas or Ukraine, but he did know his father, then the US vice president. His father, like other Western leaders, was pushing for an investigation of Burisma for money laundering. Trump claims Joe Biden was trying to protect Burisma and therefore his son. The opposite was true.”
I can’t stand tRump as much as the next sane person, however, I’m not certain that your last sentence is necessarily correct because I believe the media’s not done their job in sussing it all out — for a reason. Some food for thought:
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/article-on-joe-and-hunter-biden-censored
To my mind, particularly in a presidential election, even the appearance of impropriety should be fully investigated — and reported — in order to give voters as much information as possible to make an informed decision about whom they want to “lead” (remember, I’m talking about sane folk, not MAGA supporters who could give two sh*ts about iANYTHING their candidate did, as long as it was racist, xenophobic, misogynistic and greedy). The dearth of information regarding the Bidens, Ukraine and Burisma, from the primaries through the run-up to election day, never provided that type of investigation.
This smells a lot like that alleged, b*llshit, Russian “hack” of Hillary’s emails Democrats cooked up to make voters heads swivel away from how horribly crooked an establishment candidate she was. A “hack” which, as it turns out, was actually an inside leak:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/12/cias-absence-conviction/
It’s amazing to me how folk will blindly believe whatever Democrats say just because they hate the current man-baby in office. Make no mistake, there’s politrickin’ going on on both sides of the aisle. Politicians lie all the time, some are just better at it than others — especially when they’ve got a little help from their “friends” in the media. Just my two cents…
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Another interesting take on Greenwald’s resignation from The Intercept and why as it relates to Biden:
https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/greenwalds-intercept-resignation-exposes-the-rot-in-all-mass-media-863ec89e9afa
The link midway the page to Matt Taibi’s piece is worth taking a look at as well.
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@ Deb
“It’s amazing to me how folk will blindly believe whatever Democrats say just because they hate the current man-baby in office. Make no mistake, there’s politrickin’ going on on both sides of the aisle. Politicians lie all the time…”
Ain’t that the truth.
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About the accident, it’s almost impossible now to know what exactly happened, especially since the police records are missing.
I think it’s very possible that Neilia didn’t see the tractor trailer and/or ran the stop sign. She may have been distracted by her very small children, who most likely would not have been constrained the way they would be now.
On the other hand, driving after drinking was treated much differently in 1972. The truck driver might have had a beer or two with lunch and thought nothing of it. The Snopes article points out that blood alcohol tests weren’t even mandatory back then. It wasn’t until MADD was founded in the 1980s that laws and attitudes started changing.
Another thing that wasn’t mandatory back then were car seats. I wasn’t terribly surprised to see that the Snopes article said Neilia was holding the baby as she drove. That was incredibly common at the time.
The boys were almost definitely not in car seats and probably weren’t wearing seatbelts. If the car was older than 1968, it might not even have had seatbelts at all. Definitely no such thing as airbags.
Biden has apparently stopped claiming the truck driver was drunk as of 2008, and has apologized to the family.
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Abagond:
I’m disappointed in this, as you purposely chose to ignore info to mislead your audience.
First, it’s worth noting that the 50 retired intelligence officials they got to say “looks like it could be Russia” were deep state cronies who support Biden because of that. They never reviewed the laptop (as current FBI and officials have).
To be clear, the Director of National Intelligence, after consulting with the FBI who actually have reviewed the laptop contents, has confirmed there’s no evidence of Russian involvement. To not mention that is dishonest, Abagond).
You mentioned Biden’s two sons. He also has a daughter, Ashley Biden (besides Naomi Biden, who died as you note–though evidence suggests Biden’s wife caused the accident and Joe lied about it), who in her diary that was recently released notes that she believes she was sexually abused as a child (leading to her current drug and sexual problems) and believes the showers she took with her father, Joe Biden, were inappropriate. She has not come forward to say the diary (and her signatures inside, which exactly matches her official signature) is not real. To mention both sons in some detail and not her is both sexist and dishonest, Abagond.
You said, “Trump claims Joe Biden was trying to protect Burisma and therefore his son. The opposite was true.” This is laughable. The e-mails show Hunter Biden was getting pressure to have this prosecutor fired and Burisma wanted a meeting with his dad. The meeting at the White House happened shortly thereafter. Joe Biden’s team is not even denying it after this evidence. They just said it wasn’t “official” and wasn’t on his schedule. Then Joe Biden went and did exactly what Burisma wanted. As Greenwald (a liberal) notes, the guy who replaced that prosecutor was even more corrupt and did nothing to help Ukraine, but Joe Biden never seemed to care about that.
“Neither seem to be the smoking gun of corrupt dealing in Ukraine and China that the right-wing press claims they are, unless you take the word of Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden.”
There are many many more e-mails and texts, as you know. What about the text indicating that Hunter Biden had to give 50% of his salary to “Pops”. The e-mail saying Hunter Biden was to hold an additional 10% in a massive proposed JV with a Chinese State Owned Enterprise (SOE) for “the big guy” isn’t a smoking gun? Yes, Bobulinski confirmed the meaning of that was known to be Joe Biden. He was on the e-mail. So were others. No one has denied the obvious meaning there. Yes, Tony Bobulinski also met with Joe Biden in person twice. The Biden camp hasn’t denied this.
Another Hunter Biden business partner has released 26,000 e-mails. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/former-hunter-biden-business-partner-gives-26-000-emails-to-breitbart
So yes, there are smoking guns showing that Joe knew about the game, unless you choose to only believe that 2 e-mails you select are real.. which makes no sense. The Bidens have not denied the specific authenticity of any of the e-mails.
Do you honestly Believe if the FBI turned over a laptop copy to the Washington Post that they would report honestly and start covering Joe Biden’s corruption?
Also, when writing about Hunter Biden it’s worth at least noting that there are videos of Hunter doing sexual stuff with his 14 year old niece going around, as well as other underage girls.
You can say you believe those were fake–and you believe in Joe Biden’s integrity, even if the e-mails and diary are legit Joe Biden is a traitor and pedo/incest perpetrator. However, you should be clear on what you believe is faked and why.
With the above suggested revisions, your article could be very good and informative.
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@ biff
John Ratcliffe is a Trump loyalist, not an intelligence professional. Something you never point out. His opinion is worthless.
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@ biff
Read the title of the post. It says “Hunter Biden”, not “Ashley Biden”, not even “Creepy Joe”.
Some people might mix up Beau and Hunter, which is why I was careful to distinguished them. I did not think they would mix up Hunter and Ashley.
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@ biff
If Bobulinski is right then yes, it is a smoking gun. I said that in the post. Otherwise it is too vague.
I know that the Bidens do not deny those two emails. I do not know if that applies to the thousands of others. There have been cases where real emails are mixed with fake ones, so just because a few are genuine does not mean they all are.
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@ biff
I have no idea how true that is.
The only reason we are talking about Hunter Biden is because his father is running for president. His business ties could compromise his father’s decision making. His sex life probably not.
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@ biff
I am not trying to mislead anyone. I presented what I believe to be the most important facts and points to consider.
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The Truth will set you free said:
“His father, like other Western leaders, was pushing for an investigation of Burisma…”
Surely you jest. Biden open bragged about getting the investigation shut down by using a large sum of US taxpayer money as leverage
abagond replied:
“@ The Truth
Do you have a quote or source for that?”
Here’s the video of Biden saying he got the prosecutor fired by withholding a billion dollars from Ukraine:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXA–dj2-CY&list=WL&index=20)
The fired Prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, filed an affidavit with a European Court saying he was fired because Biden was unhappy about the Burisma investigation. “The truth is that I was forced out because I was leading a wide-ranging corruption probe into Burisma Holdings, a natural gas firm active in Ukraine and Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was a member of the Board of Directors,”
Here is a copy of the affidavit:
Glenn Greenwald sets up the rest of the story pretty well here:
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/my-resignation-from-the-intercept
I think this sentence by Abagond is pretty telling:
“Hunter Biden is the target of an 11th-hour smear campaign that more than 50 retired US intelligence officials, who have worked for the past four presidents, say ‘has all the classic earmarks of a Russian intelligence operation’. Game knows game.”
50+ unnamed retired intelligence officials…. so people with no first hand knowledge who aren’t identified are saying it has the earmarks of a Russian intelligence operation. Isn’t this a textbook example of propaganda? We have active intelligence community folks going on record saying there is zero evidence of Russian involvement.
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There is a video of Biden (at the Council for Foreign Relations) telling how he got a Ukrainian prosecutor (Viktor Shokin) fired by using US Aid money as leverage.
I could only find with a clip of this at RT but it’s pretty obvious it’s not CG, lol.
Biden starts at the 1:17 mark:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCF9My1vBP4)
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Quoting Biden from the clip:
The narrative from the Trump/Giuliani side is that this Ukrainian prosecutor was going to be investigating Burisma and Biden got him fired – at Hunter Biden’s behest – to kill the probe.
The interpretation from the other side is that the prosecutor was not investigating Burisma and was actually corrupt which is why it was US policy to force him out.
This article by the UK’s independent explores that angle.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/viktor-shokin-ukraine-prosecutor-trump-biden-hunter-joe-investigation-impeachment-a9147001.html
Those are the dueling claims.
Obviously Trump and Giuliani have been trying to blow this up for political reasons rather than as a matter of principle. So their interpretation of the events will be self-serving.
However, I’m not quite sure why the USA was so concerned with a particular allegedly corrupt Ukrainian official (I’m sure there are many) or why the Vice President had to be personally involved rather than a state department official.
So like Deb, I’m not 100% convinced it was all aboveboard even though Trump obviously can’t be trusted as an unbiased reporter here.
However the corporate media is in the pocket of one party or the other so one side will ignore the story while the other will push it while neither will investigate it in good faith to get at the truth.
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@ Joe
“50+ unnamed retired intelligence officials….who aren’t identified”
FWIW, they all did sign their names.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276
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In the post I said:
That was mainly based on this from the BBC (and stuff like it I have read elsewhere):
In other words, Joe Biden was acting in sync with other Western leaders. He was not trying to pervert Western policy to protect his son.
See:
(https://www.bbc.com/news/world-54553132)
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@ Biff,
Can you explain why Guiliani wouldn’t let NBC and other media outlets access key documents needed to verify the “evidence” found on Hunter’s laptop? Seems odd to me that Fox News, the WSJ and NY post were among the few outlets that had access to everything. The Fox and WSJ editors couldn’t find anything earth shattering upon reviewing the content.
From the below article:
“The complaints from President Donald Trump and his allies have been growing louder as the election approaches: Why isn’t the mainstream media covering the Hunter Biden laptop story?
Trump and his allies say there is evidence of corruption in emails and documents allegedly found on a laptop belonging to Democrat Joe Biden’s son. They say those and other documents show that Hunter Biden used his father’s influence to enrich himself through business deals in Ukraine and China, and that his father not only facilitated that, but may have benefited financially.
But the Wall Street Journal and Fox News — among the only news organizations that have been given access to key documents — found that the emails and other records don’t make that case. Leaving aside the many questions about their provenance, the materials offered no evidence that Joe Biden played any role in his son’s dealings in China, let alone profited from them, both news organizations concluded.
As to Ukraine, a single email published by the New York Post suggests Joe Biden may have had a meeting with a representative of a Ukrainian company that employed his son. Trump and his allies alleged that means Joe Biden has lied when he said he never discussed his son’s business roles. The Biden campaign denies the meeting happened.
The lack of major new revelations is perhaps the biggest reason the story has not gotten traction, but not the only one. Among others: Most mainstream news organizations, including NBC News, have not been granted access to the documents. NBC News asked by email, text, phone call and certified mail, and was ultimately denied.
And, although no evidence has emerged that the documents are the product of Russian disinformation, as some experts initially suggested, many questions remain about how the materials got into the hands of Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who has met with Russian agents in his effort to dig dirt on the Bidens.
U.S. intelligence agencies have informed the White House that Giuliani has been in contact with alleged Russian intelligence agents. The FBI has been looking into whether the Russians played any role, and no official has ruled that out.
At the same time, dozens of former intelligence officials have said the story has the hallmarks of a Russian intelligence operation. After the election interference of 2016, the news media is especially wary of doing anything to further an effort by a foreign government to intervene in a presidential campaign.
Another factor tamping down coverage of the story is that there isn’t much new in what the laptop documents appear to reveal. The allegation that Hunter Biden has traded on his family name has been thoroughly explored in previous news stories, including a lengthy New Yorker investigation last year in which Robert Weissman, the president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, said, “It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Hunter’s foreign employers and partners were seeking to leverage Hunter’s relationship with Joe, either by seeking improper influence or to project access to him.” Reports published while the elder Biden was still vice president raised ethical questions about the Burisma deal.
While the question of whether Joe Biden enabled his son to profit from the vice president’s influence is relevant to the presidential campaign, issues of balance and proportionality also come into play.
Trump, according to the same good government advocates who have criticized Hunter Biden, is ethically challenged when it comes to appearing to use the power of his office to enrich himself and his family. David Farenthold of The Washington Post has used federal and other records to calculate that the federal government has spent at least $2.5 million on food and lodging at Trump properties since Trump took office. Earlier this month, Ben Sasse, a Republican senator from Nebraska who is up for re-election, told supporters that Trump’s family “has treated the presidency like a business opportunity.”
Yet stories about Trump’s children and their business dealings are not dominating the news cycle in the days before the election, because they have already been covered, just as the Hunter Biden story has been covered. (Trump’s tax information, on the other hand, has been covered extensively by The New York Times, because the secret tax data obtained by the newspaper revealed important new information about his tax payments and his business dealings.)
‘No role for Joe Biden’
The first story about the Hunter Biden laptop appeared in the New York Post, a conservative tabloid. One of the bylines was that of a former producer for Fox News pundit Sean Hannity.
The New York Times reported that a Post reporter who did much of the work declined to allow his byline to appear on the story.
The Times also reported that the Trump campaign initially shopped the story to the Wall Street Journal, hoping that a mainstream news organization would validate their assertions that the documents hinted at corruption.
The Journal didn’t do that.
The Journal published a story focusing on claims about an alleged deal proposal in China — claims made by a former Hunter Biden associate named Tony Bobulinski, who came forward after the laptop story broke to say that the senior Biden was well aware of his son’s arrangements.
After examining text messages provided by Bobulinski, the Journal reported that “the venture — set up in 2017 after Mr. Biden left the vice presidency and before his presidential campaign — never received proposed funds from the Chinese company or completed any deals, according to people familiar with the matter. Corporate records…show no role for Joe Biden.”
Fox News, meanwhile said it “reviewed emails from Bobulinski related to the venture — and they don’t show that the elder Biden had business dealings with SinoHawk Holdings, or took any payments from them or the Chinese.”
Can Hunter Biden conspiracy theories become 2020’s Benghazi?
MAY 20, 202011:06
An NBC News correspondent asked Bobulinski for an interview and for copies of documents in his possession, but he declined.
“All of your questions will be answered on Tucker Carlson tonight,” Bobulinski wrote on Oct. 27.
On air, to make his case that Joe Biden was involved in his son’s business dealings, Bobulinski described an encounter he says he had with the senior Biden.
At a meeting in May 2017 in Los Angeles, Bobulinski says Hunter Biden introduced him to the former vice president, saying: “This is Tony, dad, the individual I told you about that’s helping us with the business we are working and the Chinese.”
Even if that statement was made, it says very little about how much Joe Biden knew, and nothing about whether he was involved.
The Biden campaign has denied that Biden knew about the venture or stood to profit from it.
The laptop
NBC News has sought to obtain the documents on the alleged Hunter Biden laptop, but has been rebuffed.
His lawyer, Robert Costello, granted the correspondent the opportunity to review some Hunter Biden emails and other materials in person. The materials included copies of Hunter Biden identification documents that appeared to be genuine. But without taking possession of the copies, it was not possible to conduct the sort of forensic analysis that might help authenticate the emails and documents.
It was Giuliani who ultimately told NBC News he would not be providing a copy of the hard drive. NBC News responded by asking if, instead of a full copy of the hard drive, he could just provide copies of the full set of emails. Giuliani did not agree to that proposal. NBC News then declined an offer of copies of a small group of emails.
NBC News has also requested the documents from Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, but has not received a response.
Key questions remain about the origins of the laptop and how it got into Giuliani’s hands.
The owner of a computer repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware, John Paul Mac Isaac, has said a man he believes was Hunter Biden left a water-damaged Apple computer at his shop in April 2019 for repairs and data recovery.
But Biden never retrieved the machine, Mac Isaac has said, and at some point he began to examine the data. He said he found material that disturbed him, though he has never publicly explained what that was. His lawyer said he contacted the FBI, which ultimately served a grand jury subpoena for the laptop and a hard drive.
After hearing nothing from the FBI for months, Mac Isaac said he grew frustrated and turned a copy of the laptop’s contents over to Giuliani’s lawyer.
A representative for Giuliani said one of Giuliani’s companies received an e-mail from Mac Isaac saying he had the laptop and thought Giuliani should be aware of its contents. The representative said Mac Isaac provided a copy of the hard drive to Giuliani’s team.
According to the representative, Mac Isaac said he wrote to Giuliani’s team after trying to reach out to Republican members of Congress without success.
Giuliani’s attorney said Mac Isaac did not ask for or receive payment for the copy of the drive.
The subpoena, which was published by the New York Post, was signed by a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Wilmington.
A photo of a receipt provided to Mac Isaac by FBI agents was published on the Fox News website. It contained an FBI code, 272D, which the bureau uses to signify an investigation into money laundering where the unlawful activity is unknown.
U.S. officials have refused to explain why they seized the laptops and what, if anything, they are investigating.
NBC News attempted to speak to Mac Isaac, but he did not respond to requests for comment. NBC News published an article quoting responses he had given to The Daily Beast. His lawyer then sent NBC News a letter that said, “Your network and affiliates should cease any further discussion of Mr. Mac Isaac as much of the information you are presenting is false.”
James Rosen, a reporter for the conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group, the nation’s largest operator of local television stations, reported this week that a Justice Department official told him the FBI had opened a criminal investigation into Hunter Biden and his associates last year focused on allegations of money-laundering — and that the probe remains active…….”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/here-s-what-happened-when-nbc-news-tried-report-alleged-n1245533
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@Abagond…In other words, Joe Biden was acting in sync with other Western leaders. He was not trying to pervert Western policy to protect his son.
With all due respect to this space you’ve provided for us (Biff, et al I’m lookin’ at YOU, cuz — RESPECT!) — I gotta ask, So what “…Joe Biden was acting in sync with other Western leaders”??? Is that not indictment enough?
Whether or not he was “trying to pervert Western policy to protect his son” or not, is secondary — as I said somewhere upthread, they all lie, for whatever reasons (usually money and power).
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@ Deb
Ditto.
The politicians lie very oft if not most of the time. So we must all be aware of that.
Being me in a region of the Earth where voters are oft confronted with options of choice that include: politicians who were or are actually war lords, incredibly corrupt people, regionalist or ethnicist candidates, etc I tend to be somewhat cynical with your absorption in self-doubts before your elections.
Let me invite you with grand acclamation to the grown-up world of politics! Take your seat, please, and watch! This is the real world!
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@Solitaire
Thanks. I didn’t see that they had all signed a letter. The substance of what i said is still true. That is, they are not actively in the intelligence community and there is zero documentary evidence the lap top is in any way connected to Russia.
@ Abagond
Thanks for clarifying. Is it your belief that Joe Biden withheld a billion dollars in aid to Ukraine to have Viktor Shokin fired only for the purpose of helping out the leaders of the EU nations that wanted Shokin gone?
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@ Joe
I do not know what his motives were. My point is that it was that he did not change Western policy to protect his son. That would have been corrupt and concerning, regardless of the wisdom of Western policy.
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@ Deb
Maybe, but that was not my point, not in this post. This post is about Hunter Biden and whether his doings show that his father, who is running for president, is criminal or corrupt. I am not arguing the merits of the Ukraine policy itself.
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@ Abagond
“I do not know what his motives were. My point is that it was that he did not change Western policy to protect his son. That would have been corrupt and concerning, regardless of the wisdom of Western policy.”
Respectfully, that is some hairsplitting and it is a stretch to comport that view with your opinions on Trump’s actions with Ukraine aid. Thank you for answering.
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@ Abagond…“This post is about Hunter Biden and whether his doings show that his father, who is running for president, is criminal or corrupt. I am not arguing the merits of the Ukraine policy itself.”
Neither am I. You and I hardly EVER disagree here but, on this one we do. I gotta agree with Joe upthread, it seems you’re doing some serious hairsplitting. My point was, and still is, that Hunter’s shenanigans, whether true or not — DOshow an appearance of impropriety (corruption) that can, and HAS been exploited by tRump’s campaign. And aside from that (if I even believed that were the case), Jim Crow Joe’s “acting in sync with other Western leaders” neither absolves him, NOR THEM, from screwing around with the absolute SOVEREIGNTY of another nation for “dolla, dolla bills.” To me, that’s corruption, plain and simple. That his son benefitted from his actions was just icing on the cake — for both of them, and Burisma.
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@ Deb
Right, there is a larger foreign policy issue which this post does not consider.
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So now that the election is over, it has been revealed that Hunter Biden is being investigated by the FBI and IRS’s Criminal Investigation agency.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hunter-biden-federal-criminal-investigation-focuses-on-his-business-dealings-in-china/ar-BB1bN69I
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It’s interesting to hear this from the Chinese perspective: here is a Chinese professor discussing the fact that Wall Street owns most American politicians (he even mentions Biden’s son and Trump’s claims about his foundation).
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh9r-MBkcVM)
It’s very astute of the Chinese to understand where the real levers of power in America are and how to manipulate them to its advantage. I think many Americans lie to themselves, but China is not in a position to be blind to the truth while dealing with a potentially hostile world power.
But while Americans sit complacently, Wall Street is going to pick America’s bone clean.
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@ Origin
Even on my severely limited news media diet, I saw this video. Because Trump retweeted a segment Tucker Carlson did on it on Fox News. The Murdochs, by the way, own both Fox News and the news outlet you got it from – news.com.au.
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@abagond
Hmm, I wonder why are the other outlets aren’t showing it?
Not relevant?
As irrelevant as the fact the Hunter Biden was under investigation by the FBI all along even while it was supposedly “Russian propaganda” to suggest that he was a bit slippery?
I wonder if MSNBC would have aired a video of a Russian scholar with close ties to Putin saying something similar about Ivanka, Eric or Trump Junior in front of a large Russian audience?
Truth has been strangled by the extreme partisanship of the media and political parties.
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@Origin…https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-hunter-biden-criminal-probe-bolsters?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyNzM0MDk4LCJwb3N0X2lkIjoyNDI0MzA1MiwiXyI6InpjalBNIiwiaWF0IjoxNjA3NjU1NTM3LCJleHAiOjE2MDc2NTkxMzcsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0xMjg2NjIiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.R-I5BQcIhGfMDgaq-h_dUTMEjwy9kGduFVddvqH2NPo
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Hunter Biden is not going to be the POTUS. Why are they not going for Trump’s criminal offspring?
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@Mary Burrell…“Hunter Biden is not going to be the POTUS…”
Hey daughter! I just have to say to you, like I said somewhere upthread — the appearance of impropriety, is it’s own “poison pill” as regards Joe Biden being the president of the supposedly, free world. It matters mightily, Daughter.
You can’t call tRump a lying, self-dealing Mofo (which he is), when you’ve elected someone just like him — but LOOKS different. Based on what I’ve studied about the Obama administration over his two terms, his roll-out of Cabinet nominee retreads, makes me know that the Biden Administration ain’t nothin but “same shit different day.”
As for going for “Trump’s criminal offspring,” — understand, Daughter, they’re two sides of the same coin. They let the fox into the henhouse and he knows sh*t now. Just like Obama, they can’t/won’t do any deep dives because it’ll expose what THEY’VE also been a party to. However, NY AG Letitia James WILL be able to get tRump & his offspring on NY STATE charges — and she’ huntin’, in very fertile fields…
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@Mary
IIRC Trump and his family are the targets at multiple investigations. Here’s one involving Ivanka in New York.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-investigating-trump-tax-write-offs-ivanka/
@Deb
Thanks for that link.
That article pointed out that Shimon Prokupecz (CNN) said the following on twitter:
So this is not a new investigation, per se.
It was already active when all the rumors were swirling in 2020 that Hunter Biden was using the “Biden” name to peddle influence.
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@Origin, you’re welcome.
…“So this is not a new investigation, per se.”
Correct. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons Glenn Greenwald left The Intercept, a media platform he co-founded was his refusal to be censored on the Bidens by its editors. Check out the video at this link in which he explains:
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-aftermath-of-my-move-back-to?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyNzM0MDk4LCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxNjE3NjM0MiwiXyI6ImtzYXhTIiwiaWF0IjoxNjA3NzE2NzA5LCJleHAiOjE2MDc3MjAzMDksImlzcyI6InB1Yi0xMjg2NjIiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.gcYpt4jbz40bICSTWLVFBr-RN9eLXx_dlhdeLkqFe88
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@Deb
Interesting.
They wanted nothing to do with the story even though, as journalists, they should have welcomed the opportunity to find out if there was anything there.
It seems that, at this point, many entities which carry the label “media” are really propaganda arms of one of the political parties or the other.
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@Origin…“They wanted nothing to do with the story even though, as journalists, they should have welcomed the opportunity to find out if there was anything there.”
Precisely. However, because they’re NOT really “journalists,” just mere stenographers for whatever party OR</> government agency needing to LOOK like they’re better than the sum of its parts — they become that “propaganda arm” or better yet, “presstitute media” selling their wares to the highest bidder and “we the people” NEVER get the WHOLE story of what’s really going on unless we go digging for it. And by the time we find that whole truth? We finally realize we’ve been hoodwinked and bamboozled with little to no option left but to wait four more years (or two for the midterms) while the two sides of same coin keep on f*ckin’ us over while they get rich and/or build on their sad, barbaric, “Full Spectrum Dominance” of the planet idiocy. SMDH
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@ Deb
“…we the people” NEVER get the WHOLE story of what’s really going on unless we go digging for it.”
Oh so true! You really need heavy earth moving equipment to dig for factual information these days, especially to provide context to “news” stories that make no sense otherwise.
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@Afrofem…“You really need heavy earth moving equipment to dig for factual information these days, especially to provide context to “news” stories that make no sense otherwise.”
Hey Sis!!! Yep, that’s why I first read their BS, then I go digging. After 64 seasons on this planet, I’ve learned a good chunk of folk WILL lie, if they can get away with it — especially if it benefits them and theirs personally, financially, socially, or professionally — ethically, equitably and fairly be damned.
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According to The Global Times, my favorite CPC mouthpiece, the trial of HK billionaire Jimmy Lai could shed light on the origin of this scandal, assuming, of course, that it is held in open court. To avoid violating Abagond’s 500 words quote limit I reduced the article to 488 words.
“Lai may ‘expose scandal of serving Trump admin in 2020 election’ with media empire: analysts
By Yang Sheng Source: Global Times Published: 2020/12/13 19:58:11
US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo voiced their support on Twitter to Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, a media tycoon and instigator of Hong Kong riots with collusion with the US, who has been charged with “colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security.”
Experts said on Sunday that this proves that senior officials in the Trump administration are trying their best at the last moment in office to harm China-US relations and maximize the difficulties for the new Democratic administration on fixing ties.
Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration are also worrying that Lai could expose some scandals that might indicate that the Trump administration was using his media empire to affect the 2020 US election, analysts said…
The police will examine more than 1,000 messages and related videos of Lai’s social media accounts…
Lü Xiang, a research fellow on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday that Pence’s and Pompeo’s tweets once again proved that the US had deep collusion with instigators of the Hong Kong turmoil in 2019 like Lai, and they are very disappointed that their support for these troublemakers turned out to be a total failure.
“Lai is a high-value asset to the CIA in Hong Kong, as he has received support from the US since the 1990s to challenge the People’s Republic of China in Hong Kong” and due to Lai being denied bail by the court, “this could mean that the court and the police might have hard evidence that could charge Lai with a serious violation of the law.”
A Beijing-based n expert who asked for anonymity said that normally, bail for suspects in Hong Kong won’t be denied, so this time, according to the national security law for Hong Kong, Lai could be charged with serious crimes.
“The reason why US officials are so nervous and panic-stricken is that Lai is not a normal pawn on their chessboard, but a media tycoon who has deep cooperation with the Trump administration and he knows many significant secrets,” he said.
Apart from interrupting public order, instigating violence to challenge the government and endangering national security, Lai also used his media empire to create misinformation to support the Trump administration and smear Joe Biden and his family members to meddle in the US election.
NBC reported in October that the Apple Daily, owned by Lai, had commissioned a 64-page intelligence report to smear Biden, which “exposed the ties” of Hunter Biden to Ukraine and China.
The report said that one of the people who posted the document is Christopher Balding, a former professor at Fulbright University Vietnam in Hanoi, who blogs about China. Balding admitted that he had been commissioned by Apple Daily to fabricate the document.”
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(https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/how-fake-persona-laid-groundwork-hunter-biden-conspiracy-deluge-n1245387).
The above is the NBC article referred to above.
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Fascinating how Trump, his friends and Falun Gong, “an evil cult” according to the CPC are so cozy. Maybe Mueller should have investigated them instead of the Russians.
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Here’s a somewhat interesting report from WSJ on this. Apparently A.G Barr played a role in keeping the Hunter Biden investigation quiet during the election period. It’s interesting because Barr is seen as a very partisan A.G and one suspects that Biden’s son’s issues would have helped Trump.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/barr-kept-biden-probes-from-public-to-avoid-election-politics-11607951984
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So I just saw that Barr is resigning as A.G just a month before the official inauguration of Biden.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/14/politics/ag-barr-resignation-letter/index.html
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