The FBI is remaining silent on the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop nearly four years after its refusal to verify its authenticity caused social media companies to bury stories about it ahead of the 2020 election.
The FBI said it had “no comment” when asked by Fox News Digital if the bureau had any regrets about not acknowledging the authenticity of Biden’s laptop now that it has been introduced as evidence in Biden’s criminal gun trial.
The existence of the laptop was first revealed by the New York Post in the weeks leading up to the 2020 election between now-President Biden and former President Trump, with the outlet reporting on contents on the laptop it claimed detailed the Biden family’s influence peddling scheme.
BIDEN’S CLAIMS THAT HUNTER LAPTOP WAS ‘RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION’ DEBUNKED BY HIS OWN SON
Hunter Biden arrives at the federal court on the opening day of his trial on criminal gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 3, 2024. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
Social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter were quick to act and limit distribution of the New York Post story on the laptop, with Twitter banning links to the story from being posted on its platform. Meanwhile, Facebook temporarily reduced the reach of posts containing stories about the laptop until it could be verified by independent fact-checkers.
According to reporting from the Atlantic, Facebook’s decision to limit distribution of the story was based on an FBI warning that social media companies watch for disinformation in the weeks leading up to the election. That fact was seized upon in a House Judiciary Committee letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray last year, with lawmakers questioning why the FBI refused to verify the authenticity of the laptop despite knowledge that the device was not part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
“The FBI’s failure to alert social-media companies that the Hunter Biden laptop was real, and not mere Russian disinformation, is particularly troubling,” the letter to Wray read. “The FBI had the laptop in their possession since December 2019 and had warned social-media companies to look for a ‘hack and dump’ operation by the Russians prior to the 2020 election. Even after Facebook specifically asked whether the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation, [Laura] Dehmlow of the FBI refused to comment, resulting in the social-media companies’ suppression of the story. As a result, millions of U.S. citizens did not hear the story prior to the November 3, 2020 election.”
Hunter Biden arrives at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 6, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
NEW YORK TIMES FINALLY CONFIRMS HUNTER BIDEN’S LAPTOP AFTER DISMISSING IT AMID 2020 CAMPAIGN
Outlets such as the New York Times and Washington Post would later publish their own analysis of the laptop, finding nearly two years later that the contents of the device were real and not the result of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Nevertheless, Wray defended the FBI in a congressional hearing shortly before receiving the Judiciary Committee letter last year, calling accusations that the bureau favored the Biden family “ludicrous.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“The work the men and women of the FBI do to protect the American people goes way beyond one or two investigations that seem to capture all the headlines,” Wray said at the time.
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However, Wray refused to engage in specific questions about the investigation into Biden, a policy of silence that has persisted into the present day, with the bureau referring Fox News Digital’s questions about the laptop to the special counsel’s office.
