A senior FBI official has revealed that the bureau told Twitter that Hunter Biden‘s laptop computer was genuine the same day a newspaper first reported details of President Biden and his son’s foreign business deals based on documents from the laptop.
Laura Dehmlow, section chief of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), made the revelation in a closed-door deposition this week to the House Judiciary Committee, which released a transcript of the deposition on Thursday.
The FBI‘s verification of Hunter Biden‘s laptop was not made public until after the 2020 presidential election, despite an October 2020 letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials claiming the laptop documents were Russian disinformation.
“Somebody from Twitter essentially asked whether the laptop was real. And one of the FBI folks who was on the call did confirm that, ‘Yes, it was,’ before another participant jumped in and said, ‘No further comment,’” Ms. Dehmlow told the committee.
The FBI declined to comment.
Hours after the publication of the Oct. 14, 2020, report by the New York Post, Twitter blocked the article from being shared on its platform. Facebook de-amplified the story, significantly reducing its circulation and prevalence in newsfeeds.
Twitter prohibited sharing links to the original laptop article until Oct. 16, 2020, and continued to ban the newspaper from accessing its accounts for an additional two weeks for refusing to delete initial links to the story.
The FBI took possession of the laptop computer in December 2019, 10 months before the newspaper published materials copied from the hard drive, raising questions as to whether the bureau actively sought to discredit previously authenticated materials.
The FBI authenticated the laptop in November 2019, Internal Revenue Service supervisory agent Gary Shapley told the House Ways and Means Committee on May 26.
“In October 2019, the FBI became aware that a repair shop had a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden and that the laptop might contain evidence of a crime,” Mr. Shapley said in his testimony. “The FBI verified its authenticity in November of 2019 by matching the device number against Hunter Biden‘s Apple iCloud ID.”
The report about Hunter Biden’s laptop computer set off a deluge of embarrassing emails, photos and text messages pulled from the hard drive. The information included details about Hunter Biden‘s struggles with addiction and his massively profitable foreign business dealings that critics say suggest influence peddling.
Some emails appeared to contradict President Biden‘s claims that he never spoke with his son about overseas business deals.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, is now calling on FBI Director Christopher A. Wray to provide more information about who at the bureau first told Twitter the laptop computer was authentic.
In a letter to the FBI director, Mr. Jordan also asks for the name of the FBI official who said “no further comment” during the October 2020 call.
Mr. Jordan wants Mr. Wray to provide a list of FBI employees who participated in the deliberations following the meeting between FITF and Twitter in October 2020 about how to respond to questions about the authenticity of Hunter Biden‘s laptop.
More specifically, he wants a list of FBI employees affiliated with the FITF who knew the FBI had the Hunter Biden laptop and knew it was authentic.
Mr. Jordan also requested a list of those who participated in the deliberations following the meeting between FITF and Twitter about how to respond to questions about the authenticity of the laptop.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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