Prosecutors plan to introduce the infamous "laptop from hell" as evidence against Hunter Biden at the First Son's federal gun trial. Yes, the laptop is "real," the Justice Department insists, and questioning its authenticity is an unfounded "conspiracy theory."
According to a court document filed Wednesday, special counsel David C. Weiss wants to submit the device into evidence as proof that President Joe Biden's son was addicted to crack at the time he bought a gun in 2018, thereby violating federal law.
"The defendant's laptop is real (it will be introduced as a trial exhibit) and it contains significant evidence of the defendant's guilt," Weiss wrote in Wednesday's court filing, citing sources that corroborate the laptop's legitimacy, such as Hunter Biden's own admissions in his book, Beautiful Things. "Any argument that suggests his laptop is not authentic would be inappropriate because there is no foundation for such questioning, and it risks creating juror confusion about the evidence actually at issue in this case."
Earlier this week, Hunter Biden's defense attorneys opposed the prosecution using the laptop as supporting evidence, arguing in an opposition filing that "the data had been altered and compromised before investigators obtained the electronic material..."
Hunter Biden had dropped off his MacBook Pro at a Delaware computer repair place—The Mac Shop owned by John Paul Mac Isaac—in April 2019 and never reclaimed it. Eight months later, Mac Isaac handed the hard drive to the FBI in December 2019.
"Mr. Biden cannot agree this electronic data is 'authentic' as to being his data as he used and stored it prior to Mac Issac obtaining it," Hunter Biden's defense counsel countered Monday. The defense claimed that in Mac Isaac's memoir, American Injustice: My Battle to Expose the Truth, the store owner acknowledged he "dove into the laptop every evening" within the first few weeks of acquiring it, accessing its contents, watching videos, scrolling through photos, reading emails, and opening files. The repairman also made copies or "clones" of the data for others, including Trump allies Robert Costello and Rudy Giuliani.
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The defense cited a forensic analysis commissioned by The Washington Post that cast aspersions on the data's veracity. "Thus, vast amounts of what has been reported as Mr. Biden's data from the laptop could not be validated as his," the defense wrote.
"Mr. Biden should be able to object on authenticity grounds to any data from the iCloud or the MacBook laptop," the defense counsel argued, claiming that it's "inflammatory evidence that may have been tampered with by someone other than Mr. Biden."
In response, Weiss said nowhere in Mac Isaac's book does the author say he manipulated the data, because "no such passages are quoted in the defendant's response." Furthermore, the prosecution has witnesses lined up ready to testify that they exchanged these messages in question with Hunter Biden. Also, Weiss added, the laptop's contents are only a fraction of the digital evidence collected against him, including iCloud data obtained directly from Apple and not originating from the laptop.
"What are the messages the defendant is claiming were somehow retroactively planted into his non-functional laptop, and what is the evidence of that? There is none. He has not shown any of the actual evidence in this case is unreliable or inauthentic..." Weiss rebutted. "Instead, the defendant's theory about the laptop is a conspiracy theory with no supporting evidence."
"This is yet another example of the defendant asking people to believe Russian intelligence when it suits his interests, but not to believe Russian intelligence when it doesn't suit his interests." pic.twitter.com/DHru50O4O4
— Tristan Leavitt (@tristanleavitt) May 23, 2024
Speaking on the WaPo report's findings, Weiss noted that The Post had made copies of a portable drive provided by a third party and furnished them to the analysts they hired. Meanwhile, the federal government is using "actual extractions" taken by an FBI forensic specialist following "a technical examination" of the laptop, "not whatever files were [...] eventually obtained by the Washington Post after who-knows-what was added to them by third parties that have nothing to do with this criminal case."
The laptop's discovery ignited a media firestorm in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. A trove of damning emails found on the laptop uncovered the Biden family's shady overseas business dealings and apparent influence-peddling scheme abroad.
The pro-Biden establishment tried to dismiss it as Russian disinformation. Fifty-one ex-intelligence officials, now known as the "spies who lied," claimed—without evidence—that the story bore "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." Biden, then the Democratic nominee, invoked the letter at the second presidential debate. But, one of the letter's signatories, Michael Morell, formerly the CIA's deputy director, admitted that Biden's 2020 campaign played an active role in the letter's origins and strategized the statement's release in an effort to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of Election Day.
And of course, corporate media parroted the false claim.pic.twitter.com/okz0Xg6Nf6
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) April 21, 2023
Now, Hunter Biden's defense relies on an allegation involving a Russian businessman claiming that the defendant's devices were compromised by FSB assets (Russia's Federal Security Service) during a trip he took to Kazakhstan in 2014. "This is yet another example of the defendant asking people to believe Russian intelligence when it suits his interests, but not to believe Russian intelligence when it doesn't suit his interests," Weiss wrote Wednesday. "None of this hearsay on hearsay is evidence, and none of it demonstrates that the actual trial evidence was altered. Any questioning suggesting this would be without a foundation."
The prosecution asked the judge overseeing the looming trial to prohibit Hunter Biden from suggesting that the electronic evidence is fabricated or fake because "he has not offered any evidence supporting such a claim." The defense has had the raw laptop data since September 2023, but has failed to produce reciprocal evidence of its manipulation or alteration, Weiss wrote.
"The government further requests that the Court prohibit the defendant from suggesting that the electronic evidence is fabricated, manipulated, altered, or inauthentic because he has not offered any evidence supporting such a claim." pic.twitter.com/4jjOg7uPF4
— Tristan Leavitt (@tristanleavitt) May 23, 2024
The judge presiding over the proceedings ruled Friday that jurors at Hunter Biden's upcoming trial on weapons charges can be shown the laptop evidence of his illegal drug use and that it cannot be barred outright based on the defense's claim it had been hacked and implanted with false information. However, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika stipulated that the defense can also object to the introduction of certain pieces of evidence extracted from the laptop on an item-by-item basis. The ruling is likely to lead to feuds between the prosecution and the defense, stretching the trial beyond the one-week timeline we're expecting.
Hunter Biden's trial is scheduled to start on the morning of June 3 at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, his father's stomping grounds. The proceedings will kick off with jury selection, and the jury trial is supposed to last from three to six days.
Hunter Biden is charged with making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a licensed dealer, and possession of a firearm by someone who is illegally using or addicted to a controlled substance. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison. He is pleading not guilty to the three felony firearm crimes.
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