- Daily Mail claims he verified Hunter Biden’s laptop and published explicit images from it.
- The computer, which was allegedly left in a repair shop, was the subject of fierce controversy last year.
- The exhaust valve claimed that it showed a side of Biden about which he was not transparent, in his new book.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
The Daily Mail claims this week that forensic experts have confirmed the authenticity of messages and images on a laptop with turbulent details of Hunter Biden’s private life.
DailyMail.com, the US-focused website run by the British tabloid newspaper, published a lengthy article on Thursday outlining the contents of the laptop.
The laptop became an intense controversy ahead of the presidential election in November when the New York Post claimed in October that it contained emails harmful to Joe Biden, then a Democratic nominee.
The Post claims that the material from the laptop indicates that Joe Biden was jeopardized by his son’s business transactions in Ukraine, where he was on the board of the energy company Burisma.
Critics said other emails contained evidence of influence hawkers by Hunter Biden in China. No allegation was ever substantiated.
The story of how the Post and later the Daily Mail obtained the contents of the machine is complicated; it is said to have been left in a computer store in Delaware and then handed over to Donald Trump’s allies.
Amid doubts about the authenticity of the information and information sessions of US intelligence agencies that it is likely to be part of a Russian disinformation campaign, Facebook and Twitter have taken steps to prevent the Post’s report from being shared on the platforms .
The Daily Mail reported that the laptop was indeed Hunter Biden’s and that he had received 103,000 text messages, 154,000 emails and more than 2,000 photos of a copy of the hard drive.
The Daily Mail said the content was verified by cyberforensics experts at Maryman & Associates, a California company that says on its website that it has 20 years of experience.
Daily Mail said the company linked the content to email addresses, content from an iPad and an iPhone serial number linked to Hunter Biden.
The Daily Mail report came days after the publication of Hunter Biden’s memoir, “Beautiful Things,” in which he describes his struggle with drug addiction.
A spokesman for Biden’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, told Insider that Biden would not comment on the report.
Daily Mail claims that the material from the laptop shows that Biden did not want to reveal ‘parts of his life’. It published photos that he said were shown with prostitutes and were evidence of drug use.
There is no politically substantive new information in the report. It claims to contain text messages between Hunter Biden and his father; very wise Joe Biden offers his son support.
Daily Mail claims that material from the computer showed that Hunter Biden could evade criminal charges.
—Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) 9 April 2021
The report contains information on Hunter Biden’s messages about an incident in 2018 involving the secret service in which the wife of his deceased brother Beau, Hallie Biden, with whom Hunter was in a relationship, dropped his firearm in a trash can went to an argument. The secret service denied any involvement.
Fox News hosts seized on the report Thursday night, renewing their attacks on Hunter Biden and showing explicit photos of videos found on the laptop.
—Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) 9 April 2021
Federal authorities are investigating whether Hunter Biden committed tax crimes related to his work in Ukraine and China.
In an appearance on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ on Thursday to promote his book, Biden addressed some of the controversy, including the laptop. He had earlier said he did not know if the device was his.
“Now look, I really do not know, and the fact is that it is a red herring. It is absolutely a red herring,” he said. ‘But I’m absolutely under my right to question anything that comes from Rudy Giuliani’s desk. And so I do not know what the answer is. ‘
Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, said he played a role in bringing the material on the laptop to journalists. Giuliani has long led a campaign to link Joe Biden to his son’s trade in Ukraine. Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser, was apparently also involved in dealing with the hard drive.
Last year, Trump allies seized an email that revealed that Hunter Biden was trying to market a meeting between a Burisma partner and Joe Biden while he was vice president. No evidence has come to light that suggests a meeting ever took place.
A spokesman told Politico last year that Joe Biden may have had an informal interaction with the Burisma employee, but that any interaction would have been fleeting.