The Laptop From Hell: How Hunter Biden’s Laptop Set Off a Right-Wing Frenzy
New episode on The Odd Post Podcast featuring an interview with Marcy Wheeler
New episode now out on the Odd Post Podcast: on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen.
Hunter Biden’s laptop emerged in 2020 just about a month before the general election. It was as an October Surprise dropped by Trump’s shadow campaign in the New York Post, which ran two stories on two days. The stories were sourced to what they claimed was Hunter Biden’s lost laptop, now in the hands of Rudy Giuliani. Both stories were centered on emails discovered in the data. They insinuated that then Vice President Joe Biden benefited from his son Hunter’s business deals in Ukraine and China. Despite the insinuation, neither of the two stories have held up.
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Over the next few years, “Hunter Biden’s Laptop” has become a real life McGuffin. No one has seen the actual device since the FBI took it in 2019. But the data found on it, copied, recopied, distributed, tampered with—has become a lie machine. Right wing operatives and influencers have made many wild claims about the crimes hidden in those gigabytes: from treason to child porn. None of those claims have held up either.
While the frenzied search for a smoking gun has not borne fruit, “Hunter Biden’s Laptop” as a legend generator has juiced right wing media and launched careers.
There are websites devoted to surfacing that data. A book that became a best-seller. Right wing inflencers have sold Hunter Biden Laptop themed t-shirts and coloring books. Many of these make hay of the salacious images found in the data, taken as Hunter was spiralling from a drug addiction to crack cocaine after the death of his older brother Beau.
Meanwhile, right-wingers have claimed their lives were threatened by what they know from the laptop. One claimed to have paid off hookers who got him to “lose” the laptop. The second-order scandal created by Twitter throttling the October Surprise apparently led Telsa CEO Elon Musk to purchase the service and rename it X.
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The “laptop from hell,” as Trump once called it, even launched an impeachment effort, which failed; and a conviction for Hunter on the charge of owning a gun for five days while being addicted to drugs. The conviction, strangely, disappointed many on the right, since they have been led to believe that crimes of much greater magnitude remain hidden in the gigabytes.
Amidst the noise, few actually know the sometimes wild, sometimes unbelievable story of the 13-inch Macbook Pro. This episode recounts what we know and don’t know about this real life McGuffin. It features an interview with independent journalist Marcy Wheeler who writes at EmptyWheel.net.
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Shownotes
“Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad” — New York Post, 10/14/2020
Pozharski Email 1
Pozharski Email 2
Hunter response to Email 2
Shokin firing explanation 1 and explanation 2
Joe Biden “son of a bitch” clip on forcing Shokin out
“Emails reveal how Hunter Biden tried to cash in big on behalf of family with Chinese firm” — New York Post, 10/15/2020
Rudy Giuliani is interviewed on Newsmax after the October 2020 New York Post stories come out — 10/20/2020
“The man who found the laptop from hell“: John Paul Mac Isaac interview on the Will Cain Podcast — 5/23/2022
Reporters attempt to get John Paul Mac Isaac to divulge laptop background — 10/21/2020
“Vish Burra Discusses His Pivotal Role In Unveiling The Hunter Biden Laptop From Hell” — The Dinesh D’Souza Podcast, 12/7/2022
“EXCLUSIVE: Whistleblower who handed Hunter’s abandoned laptop to congressmen and DailyMail.com reveals he has 450 gigabytes of DELETED material […]” — Daily Mail, 4/6/2022
“‘People following me’: Hunter Biden whistleblower drops thousands of new files, flees U.S.” — Newsmax, 4/7/2022
“There’s missing data from Hunter’s laptop and that concerns me | John Paul Mac Isaac” — Newsmax, 4/8/2022
“Parnas, COA Letter, July 18, 2023” — Lev Parnas, 7/18/2023
Biden Laptop copy versions — Thomas Fine
“Here’s how The Post analyzed Hunter Biden’s laptop” — Washington Post, 3/30/2022
“Hunter Biden emails” — Emma Best
Keith Ablow on Tucker Carlson’s show on X — 3/5/2024
THE LAPTOP EVERYONE KNOWS AS HUNTER BIDEN’S APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN DELETED STARTING FEBRUARY 15, 2019 — Marcy Wheeler
“JOHN PAUL MAC ISAAC’S SERIAL INACCURACIES AND THE ABLOW LAPTOP” — Marcy Wheeler, 12/17/2023
WAPO IS SUPPRESSING INFORMATION THAT MIGHT DEBUNK DEVLIN BARRETT’S LATEST SPIN — Marcy Wheeler
HUNTER BIDEN’S MATRYOSHKA CELL PHONE: HOW THE IRS AND FROTHERS GOT HUNTER’S ENCRYPTED IPHONE CONTENT — Marcy Wheeler
JOHN PAUL MAC ISAAC’S UNDISCLOSED HOME MOVIE — Marcy Wheeler
“THEY WERE TRYING TO BOOT THE MACHINE:” JOHN PAUL MAC ISAAC CLAIMS THE FBI REALLY WERE THAT INCOMPETENT — Marcy Wheeler
HOW TO THINK ABOUT THE HUNTER BIDEN “LAPTOP” — Marcy Wheeler
