Federal prosecutors further acknowledged in court documents filed Tuesday, that the laptop Hunter Biden dropped off at a computer store is in fact real, adding that the contents on the laptop matched what had previously been obtained through a search warrant on the president’s son’s Apple iCloud.
In the court document's, Biden's DOJ said the IRS and FBI obtained a search warrant for tax violations in August 2019, and were able to get access to Hunter’s Apple iCloud account.
By September 2021, Apple produced backups of data from various electronic devices Hunter backed up to his iCloud account.
"Investigators also later came into possession of the defendant's Apple MacBook Pro, which he left at a computer store," the court filing reads. "A search warrant was also obtained for his laptop and the results of the search were largely duplicative of information investigators had already obtained from Apple."
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In 2020, John Paul Mac Isaac, a computer repair shop owner who turned over the laptop belonging to the president’s son to authorities and members of the press, said a man he believed to be Hunter dropped off three laptops in his store in April 2019. Only one of the laptops was salvageable, and while repairing the laptop, Isaac said he discovered disturbing material.
Mac Isaac could not get in touch with the customer, and said he first searched the emails by keyword in June or July 2019.
The laptop saga began in October 2020, when the New York Post reported about a 2015 email from a Ukrainian energy executive to Hunter, thanking him for introducing him to his father, that it obtained from the hard drive of Hunter's laptop. Joe Biden was vice president at the time of the message, and his son then enjoyed a lucrative position on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm, raising concerns of attempted influence-peddling with his powerful father.
The laptop's content included a peek into Hunter's overseas business dealings, as well as more sordid material like homemade sex tapes and videos showing him using illegal drugs.
The laptop was widely dismissed by print and television outlets, especially The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC and CNN.
Twitter and Facebook blocked or limited sharing of the New York Post's article about Biden. Twitter even locked the New York Post out of its account for weeks.
But in February 2023, the first son admitted that the laptop at the center of a federal investigation belonged to him in a letter from his lawyers.
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At the time, journalist Miranda Devine, who authored the book "Laptop from Hell," tweeted about Hunter’s admission, saying it was not Russian disinformation or a ‘plant,’ as the president and 51 dishonest former intel officials pretended. The 51 intel officials she referred to were the 51 intelligence experts who signed a letter casting doubt on the scandal.
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In June 2023, the Department of Justice said they knew in December 2019 that the laptop was "not manipulated in any way" and contained "reliable evidence," but were "obstructed" from seeing all available information, according to an IRS whistleblower involved in the probe.
The admission revealed the DOJ knew the laptop was not manipulated nearly a year before the intelligence officials and President Biden declared it was planted as part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
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Court records allege that the searches revealed incriminating evidence like the first son’s addiction to controlled substances and his possession of a firearm.
For example, the court documents say prior to Oct. 12, 2018, when Hunter obtained a firearm, he took photos of crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia on his phone. He also sent messages, "routinely," about purchasing drugs.
During the two days after Hunter purchased the firearm, he messaged his girlfriend about meeting a drug dealer and smoking crack, court documents say.
The documents also show Hunter messaged about sleeping on a car and smoking crack, efforts by his then-girlfriend to discard the firearm, and how his devices contained photos and videos of "apparent cocaine, crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia."
