Flashback: Hunter's Laptop Russian Disinformation

[canpakes]

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.

...

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.

...

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.

Therefore,

The real scandal is the squelching of conservative sppech in the public square.

[Kishkumen]

Here are quotes from the article I shared above that are from October 30, 2020 so you can see this story you linked to in the OP is disingenuous when it makes it sounds like the story was being repressed as a political maneuver with which the media was complicit.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-e ... d-n1245533

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.

As soon as I read "Trump and his allies say," I don't need to read any further. Nothing worth considering seriously follows such an introduction.

[Res Ipsa]

The folks at Just Security compiled a detailed timeline of the efforts of Trump and Giulianni to try and manufacturer a political smear against Joe Biden based on Hunter Biden's position on the Burisma Board of directors. https://www.justsecurity.org/66271/time ... rainegate/

As all this was going on, Russia was, in fact, conducting a significant disinformation campaign to persuade Trump and Americans that Ukraine, and not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 elections. Russia's motive was pretty obvious -- remove the U.S. as an obstacle to Putin's plan to take over the Ukraine. Giuliani went so far was to work with a known Russian agent to try and manufacture dirt on Joe Biden.

The laptop was a last Hail Mary before the election to get the smear some traction. Given Trump's statements during his campaign about the U.S. withdrawing from NATO, his defense of Putin in the 2016 campaign, and his expressed adversity to Ukraine, Russian media promoted Giuliani's (and the New York Post's) false statements about what was on the laptop. A smear being part of a Russian disinformation campaign doesn't require the laptop to be "fake" or the e-mails to be "fake." But what I don't think has ever been clear is how a copy of Hunter Biden's hard drive ended up in the hands of Giuliani and Bannon. And the false story about what was actually on the laptop fit the narrative Russia had been pushing for a couple of years. Hunter Biden never denied that it was his laptop and I don't think he ever disputed the authenticity of the e-mails that were portrayed as a "smoking gun." The disinformation is what those e-mails actually were in context. And what they weren't was evidence of corruption by Joe Biden.

[honorentheos]

Word.

[K Graham]

There is no mystery as to how the alleged hard drive ended up in the hands of Giuliani.

John Paul Mac Isaac — owner of The Mac Shop — told reporters that a man who identified himself as Hunter Biden brought three liquid-damaged laptops to his repair shop in April 2019, per the Delaware News Journal.

The man left one laptop for repair and never returned to retrieve it.

Eventually, Mac Isaac gave a copy of the laptop's hard drive to Brian Costello, an attorney for Rudy Giuliani, who is the personal lawyer for President Donald Trump. Mac Isaac said he turned the hard drive over to Costello because of fears for his safety.

Now, some users on Facebook have claimed that Mac Isaac was found dead, posting screenshots of a headline that reads, "Computer Shop Owner Who Raised Alarm About Hunter Biden Laptop Found Dead."

Alongside the headline, they shared captions like "Democrats hit man strikes again" and "NOT A COINCIDENCE."

The claim first appeared on the website America's Last Line of Defense, which claimed on Nov. 28 that Mac Isaac "has been found dead, also under highly mysterious circumstances."

The fact that ONLY Rupert Murdoch owned media was allowed to have access to the docs is telling in and of itself.

Could you imagine if CNN received a document of bombshell proportions and refused to share with any other outlets, but kept referring to all the so-called damning information it alleges the documents contain?

FOX is a joke and so is this entire laptop nothing-burger. I mean, Trump was President when all this happened, and if what they say is really true then why didn't anyone arrest Hunter? Or Hillary for that matter? In fact no charges have been brought because there is no case to be made.

[Res Ipsa]

There is no mystery as to how the alleged hard drive ended up in the hands of Giuliani.

John Paul Mac Isaac — owner of The Mac Shop — told reporters that a man who identified himself as Hunter Biden brought three liquid-damaged laptops to his repair shop in April 2019, per the Delaware News Journal.

The man left one laptop for repair and never returned to retrieve it.

Eventually, Mac Isaac gave a copy of the laptop's hard drive to Brian Costello, an attorney for Rudy Giuliani, who is the personal lawyer for President Donald Trump. Mac Isaac said he turned the hard drive over to Costello because of fears for his safety.

Now, some users on Facebook have claimed that Mac Isaac was found dead, posting screenshots of a headline that reads, "Computer Shop Owner Who Raised Alarm About Hunter Biden Laptop Found Dead."

Alongside the headline, they shared captions like "Democrats hit man strikes again" and "NOT A COINCIDENCE."

The claim first appeared on the website America's Last Line of Defense, which claimed on Nov. 28 that Mac Isaac "has been found dead, also under highly mysterious circumstances."

The fact that ONLY Rupert Murdoch owned media was allowed to have access to the docs is telling in and of itself.

Could you imagine if CNN received a document of bombshell proportions and refused to share with any other outlets, but kept referring to all the so-called damning information it alleges the documents contain?

FOX is a joke and so is this entire laptop nothing-burger. I mean, Trump was President when all this happened, and if what they say is really true then why didn't anyone arrest Hunter? Or Hillary for that matter? In fact no charges have been brought because there is no case to be made.

As I recall, the store owner said a couple of things then stopped talking. This is a guy who found Hunter Biden's laptop and purported to be concerned about what was on it. Of all the possible people he could copies to, why the hell give it to Giuliani's lawyer. It's a story that just doesn't add up.

[ajax18]

Didn’t Biden deny the laptop this in a Debate with Trump? I seem to remember that, but could be wrong.

Yeah Mark, Ben Shapiro played the clip on his show. This quote is from National Review that I pulled up rather quickly.

In 2020, Joe Biden responded to Donald Trump bringing up the Post‘s story by saying on live television:

There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant. Five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except his good friend Rudy Giuliani.

This was a lie. Joe Biden is Hunter Biden’s father. He must have known full well that the story wasn’t “a bunch of garbage.” He must have known full well that it wasn’t “a Russian plant.” He must have known full well that Rudy Giuliani wasn’t the only one who believed it. Hell, he knew full well that Hunter Biden himself hadn’t denied the account, and instead had said that the laptop “absolutely” may have been his.

And yet, when pressed, Biden said otherwise, because he assumed that the press and Silicon Valley would back him up in the lie. Which, of course, they did.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/s ... top-story/

[Res Ipsa]

Biden says “what they are accusing me of” is a Russian plant. That’s not him saying “the laptop is a Russian plant.” They weren’t accusing Biden of being a laptop.

[ajax18]

Biden says “what they are accusing me of” is a Russian plant. That’s not him saying “the laptop is a Russian plant.” They weren’t accusing Biden of being a laptop.

Is that how you really understood the quote at the time? And why didn't Biden state this in the debate more clearly at the time? Why didn't the left wing media state it this way at the time rather than just try to bury the story and ban it from Facebook?

[canpakes]

Biden says “what they are accusing me of” is a Russian plant. That’s not him saying “the laptop is a Russian plant.” They weren’t accusing Biden of being a laptop.

Is that how you really understood the quote at the time? And why didn't Biden state this in the debate more clearly at the time? Why didn't the left wing media state it this way at the time rather than just try to bury the story?

A lot of folks probably figured that this didn’t need explaining.

Besides that, when the only folks allowed to see anything reportedly originating from the laptop are the WSJ and Fox News (both of which essentially make up a large percentage of the so-called ‘mainstream’ media at this point), just who is doing the burying?