Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal: a fact check

At September 14thPresident Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden has been indicted on three federal weapons charges fees.

Hunter Biden caused controversy Yearspartly because of his business connections in Ukraine And China While his father was vice president, he made allegations of corruption.

Federal prosecutors launched an investigation into Hunter Biden during the Trump administration that resulted in: fees Tax evasion and illegal possession of weapons. He should plead guilty in these cases, but this The plea deal fell through in July. Now prosecutors have filed new gun possession charges and are also expected to bring new tax evasion charges. Hunter Biden is expected to stand trial.

A major source of controversy was a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden that was left at a computer repair shop in Delaware. A few weeks before the 2020 presidential election, the New York Post published an article claiming to have obtained a copy of the laptop’s data.

The article claimed the data contained evidence that then-Vice President Joe Biden was involved in corrupt activities, particularly regarding foreign policy decisions intended to benefit his son and the companies Hunter worked with.

VERIFY has received dozens of questions about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Several viewers simply asked, “Is Hunter Biden’s laptop real?”

VERIFY delved into this controversial story and interviewed the owner of a Delaware computer repair shop.

Here’s what we can confirm to be true and false.

Is there a laptop connected to Hunter Biden?

Yes, there is a laptop connected to Hunter Biden. The FBI seized it from a computer repair shop in Delaware.

The New York Post said it received a copy of data from the laptop of Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, in October 2020. Giuliani received it from his own lawyer John Paul Mac Isaacthe owner of The Mac Shop, a computer repair shop in Delaware.

In an interview with VERIFY, Mac Isaac said that Hunter Biden brought a liquid-damaged laptop for data recovery in April 2019. Mac Isaac said he was transferring files from the laptop to an external hard drive when he saw compromising materials.

“I realized there was a lot of sensitive and embarrassing material on the laptop. Also some questionable crime. That’s why I was worried,” he said.

Mac Isaac said he reached out to Hunter Biden several times in early 2019, asking him to pick up the laptop and pay for the services, but neither happened. Joe Biden later announced his candidacy for president. Mac Isaac says he was uncomfortable with potentially compromising material about a presidential candidate’s family and wanted to turn the laptop over to law enforcement.

“I just thought it was a matter of time before someone found out that I had seen what I had seen and that I was in possession of what I was in possession of,” he told VERIFY.

Mac Isaac says his initial attempts to turn the laptop over to the FBI were rebuffed, but after a series of conversations with agents, he eventually received a subpoena for the laptop and turned the device over to investigators in December 2019.

A copy of the subpoena was later obtained and published from Fox News, which along with several other News agenciesverified its authenticity with law enforcement sources.

The Summons has now also been included by Mac Isaac as an exhibit in a corresponding civil actionin which he accused several people of defaming him since the laptop story broke.

Mac Isaac says that after investigators handed over the laptop and provided initial technical assistance, he was never contacted again. In the summer of 2020, he decided to contact Giuliani, seeing in him an authority figure who might be more interested in the contents of the computer.

“At the time, the person who, in my opinion, probably knew the most about what was happening [regarding the Biden family] “In Ukraine was Rudy Giuliani, who was also a lawyer and also represented the president of the United States,” Mac Isaac said. “[I thought he] Looks like someone who actively pursues what I perceived to be crime on a laptop. Let me pick this guy.”

Mac Isaac said he identified an attorney for Giuiliani, Robert Costello, and after exchanging initial emails, sent Costello a hard drive containing a copy of the laptop’s data in late August 2020 and asked Costello to maintain his anonymity.

Federal investigators have not made any public statements about the laptop or who owns it, and Hunter Biden and his legal team rejected to explicitly recognize its authenticity.

Multiple news outlets have obtained copies of the data found on the laptop and turned it over to cybersecurity experts for analysis. These forensic analyzes concluded that the data was real.

One led by The Washington Post, noted that it was possible that some documents circulating that purported to belong to Hunter Biden could have been manipulated, although the analysis could not make a definitive conclusion. The analysts said the vast majority of emails related to Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings contained no evidence of manipulation.

Another one led by CBS News, using a copy of the data obtained directly from Mac Isaac, found no evidence of tampering. Analysts hired by CBS concluded that the data they examined actually came from Hunter Biden and could not have been faked, in part because of the sheer volume and complexity of the documents, photos and emails it contained.

Did information from the laptop lead to corruption allegations against Hunter or Joe Biden?

No, so far the information from the laptop has not led to corruption allegations against Hunter or Joe Biden. There were no allegations of corruption at all.

So far, none of the numerous charging documents that the Justice Department has filed against Hunter Biden are available July or September – have mentioned corruption, Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings or Joe Biden.

The only time that foreign business came up public during the prosecution was when the Plea deal failed, among other things, due to disagreement over whether the deal would protect Hunter Biden from possible prosecution for other crimes, including those involving his business abroad. Biden’s lawyers believed that would be the case, but prosecutors argued that it was not. The debate led to this collapse of the deal, although there are still no allegations of corruption.

Allegedly have photos and videos from the laptop circulates Over the past three years, Hunter Biden has often been seen using drugs or engaging in sexual acts.

During one Committee hearing In July, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) showed some of the graphic images, a decision that was widely condemned.

However, no charges have been filed in connection with these images. They also provided no new revelations about Hunter Biden fights with drug addiction, something that was public for almost a decade.

Has the Justice Department completed its investigation into Hunter Biden?

No. The Justice Department has filed new gun possession charges and is also expected to file new tax evasion charges. In both cases, a trial is to be expected.

Prosecutors recently withdrew the tax evasion charge but are expected to refile it in another district.

On September 14thProsecutors working under Weiss filed a new lawsuit accusation against Hunter Biden on three weapons charges: one for possessing a weapon while addicted to drugs and two for lying on federal forms about that addiction.

Similar charges had been filed in July, but the DOJ and Hunter Biden reached a deal Diversion agreement that would prevent prosecution if Biden agreed to certain conditions. Prosecutors argue this agreement never came into force and was invalidated when the remainder of the plea deal failed.

Since no agreement has been reached on the new charges, a trial is expected. It remains to be determined whether the information obtained from the seized laptop will be used as evidence against Hunter Biden in the trial. None were mentioned in the indictment.

David Weiss, the Trump-appointed prosecutor who led The Hunter Biden investigation, which has been going on for years, was recently conducted appointed special prosecutor by Attorney General Merrick Garland. This appointment gives Knows more autonomy in his investigations.

Although there have been no allegations of corruption so far, the investigation is ongoing.