FBI and DOJ do not believe Hunter Biden laptop part of Russian disinformation campaign
by Jerry Dunleavy, Justice Department Reporter & Joseph Simonson, Political Reporter |
| October 20, 2020 06:33 PM
| Updated Oct 20, 2020, 06:59 PM
Federal law enforcement agencies do not believe the contents on Hunter Biden's laptop are part of a foreign election interference effort.
"1) FBI & DOJ concur w/ Ratcliffe that Hunter Biden's laptop & the emails in question weren't part of a Russian disinformation campaign," Fox News producer Sean Langille tweeted Tuesday evening. "2) The FBI DOES have possession of the Hunter Biden laptop in question." He said it was first reported by Fox News's Justice Department producer Jake Gibson.
A federal law enforcement official confirmed the report with the Washington Examiner.
Separately, Langille tweeted that Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum "is told by a Federal Law Enforcement Official that the emails are 'authentic.' And that the laptop may have not been looked at right away when it was received."
The laptop controversy, which Trump has signaled he plans to bring up during the final debate Thursday against Hunter Biden's father, former Vice President Joe Biden, threatens to shake up an election contest that is now only two weeks away.
Since the release of some emails to the New York Post last week, many Democrats and former intelligence officials have speculated that the contents of the hard drive cannot be trusted.
"We’ve got to get the attorney general to act. He’s got to act. And he’s got to act fast. He’s got to appoint somebody. This is major corruption, and this has to be known about before the election," President Trump said on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning.
The trove of emails and photos first published by the New York Post last week contained insights into Biden's foreign business dealings, including one deal that seemed to imply a payoff to his father.
The reporting includes an email that purportedly talks about Biden setting up a meeting between a senior official at the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, where he worked, and his father while the elder Biden was vice president. Joe Biden's campaign has denied that such a meeting took place based on "Biden’s official schedules from the time" but only as it was described in the New York Post.
So far, neither the Biden campaign nor Hunter Biden has denied any other element of the emails story, though the elder Biden has called it part of a "smear campaign." The FBI is reportedly investigating if the Hunter Biden email stories are tied to a Russian disinformation effort.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff repeatedly declared to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday that the Hunter Biden laptop issue was a Russian disinformation plot, though he provided no evidence, saying that "we know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin." Politico reported Monday that over 50 former intelligence officials, including former Obama CIA Director John Brennan, said that the Hunter Biden laptop story “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” — though the letter they signed admitted that “we do not have evidence of Russian involvement.”
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said on Monday that he didn't believe the news related to the laptop and emails are connected to the Kremlin.
"The intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that, and we have shared no intelligence with Chairman Schiff or any other member of Congress that Hunter Biden’s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign," he told Fox Business. Ratcliffe added that “Adam Schiff saying that this is part of some Russian disinformation campaign and that the IC has assessed that or believes that is simply not true.”
(continued)
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/fbi-and-doj-do-not-believe-hunter-biden-laptop-part-of-russian-disinformation-campaign