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Hunter Biden’s laptop


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Just now, Biff Tannen said:

On a separate note, it's just really weird how the Dems keep getting away with all these things while the Rs keep getting caught.  The Dems really must be criminal masterminds.  Or maybe they just aren't nearly as crimey as the GQP.

Criminal masterminds and election stealers. But they couldn’t do it in 2000, 2004, 2010 midterms, 2016, only half of the 2018 midterms, only half the 2022 midterms 

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2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Well, some credit to you then for not automagically assuming that Hunter the fuckup has included his Dad in his nasty schemes, beyond his surname, and maybe an introduction or two.

Because that's the whole right wing spin here.  That is currently almost devoid of evidence, except for some cryptic references to "the Big Guy."

There is exactly one (1) cryptic reference to the "Big Guy." 

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32 minutes ago, shakahorn said:

There is exactly one (1) cryptic reference to the "Big Guy." 

What I thought, but my recollection of things has become hazy and I'm too lazy to wade through all the "but Hunter" bullshit to find some facts.

Unfortunately, though, I see some parallels between Maga and anti-Maga both insisting upon the commission of an obvious crime when lacking actual evidence of same.  It's certainly a good bet that there's an actual obvious crime where Trump is involved, much less so with Joe Biden, somewhat less so with Hunter.  But at the end of the day, criminal charges require admissible evidence.

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So, I don't know that I believe any of it, but this IRS whistleblower sounds kinda credible. I haven't seen much that affects his credibility.

There is, I believe, a lot of confirmation bias people have when discussing investigations.  Like, I'm not sure I fully believe the WaPo reporting on the 1/6 investigation, either.

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31 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

So, I don't know that I believe any of it, but this IRS whistleblower sounds kinda credible. I haven't seen much that affects his credibility.

There is, I believe, a lot of confirmation bias people have when discussing investigations.  Like, I'm not sure I fully believe the WaPo reporting on the 1/6 investigation, either.

So the guy who goes to mass every day, went through hell with his son being an addict, buried his children yet was able to carry on, overcame stuttering and in 100 years of public life has never even had even a hint of impropriety, is a criminal, and the guy who has screwed people over for decades, cheated on his wife, has a history of saying racist things, encouraged an insurrection, talked about grabbing women by the pussy, stole classified documents and has told more lies than truths, is pure as the driven snow. Makes sense. 

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18 minutes ago, CTC2 said:

So the guy who goes to mass every day, went through hell with his son being an addict, buried his children yet was able to carry on, overcame stuttering and in 100 years of public life has never even had even a hint of impropriety, is a criminal, and the guy who has screwed people over for decades, cheated on his wife, has a history of saying racist things, encouraged an insurrection, talked about grabbing women by the pussy, stole classified documents and has told more lies than truths, is pure as the driven snow. Makes sense. 

Not what I'm saying at all.

The IRS whistleblower claims various elements of the Hunter Biden investigation pulled punches to keep Hunter and/or Joe out of trouble.

Similarly, WaPo claims various elements of the 1/6 investigation pulled punches in order that an apolitical DOJ/FBI front was maintained, and, coincidentally keeping Trump out of trouble, at least for a while.

The point being, there's a story, both stories are kind of similar, and there's nothing immediately contradicting either story or discrediting them.  In contrast to the FBI whistleblowers, who were immediately shown to be bad actors and political hacks.

Further, I think that the whistleblower and reporter both saw what they wanted to see going in the investigation.  And the confirmation bias of the audiences for the respective stories is obvious.

I personally don't believe either the IRS whistleblower or the WaPo reporting.  But I have no way to impeach their stories.

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3 hours ago, Bama Chick said:

The “whistleblower” that Jim Jordan and James Comer said disappeared and was supposedly giving info on Hunter Biden’s laptop?

Just been arrested for being a Chinese spy lol
 

 


And was paying a Trump administration official.

Accusations, confessions yadda yadda.

 

And this will never get to the people who need to hear it.  Not that they would believe it anyway.

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I'm waiting for dirt on this Gary Shapley character.  Haven't seen much so far.

It's odd, but all his shade on the Hunter Biden investigation sounds an awful lot like the shade thrown on the DOJ 1/6 investigation.

Which I think goes to show that investigations are complicated timelines subject to great amounts of interpretation.

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22 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I'm waiting for dirt on this Gary Shapley character.  Haven't seen much so far.

It's odd, but all his shade on the Hunter Biden investigation sounds an awful lot like the shade thrown on the DOJ 1/6 investigation.

Which I think goes to show that investigations are complicated timelines subject to great amounts of interpretation.

I read this in my Cousin Vinny's voice.  And it didn't make me feel any better.  

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3 hours ago, Bama Chick said:

The “whistleblower” that Jim Jordan and James Comer said disappeared and was supposedly giving info on Hunter Biden’s laptop?

Just been arrested for being a Chinese spy lol
 

 


And was paying a Trump administration official.

Accusations, confessions yadda yadda.

 

giphy.gif.a3f1407fdf5e0f9411287c92f3dc80cd.gif

Edited by elfenix
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On 6/23/2023 at 12:14 PM, Js1 said:

Criminal masterminds and election stealers. But they couldn’t do it in 2000, 2004, 2010 midterms, 2016, only half of the 2018 midterms, only half the 2022 midterms 

Geez it's almost like they only do it in advance of the GQP calling arbitrary shenanigans using questionable claims from unreliable sources based on insufficient information. How do the D's always know when the GQP is gonna pull that shit before they do it?

On 7/10/2023 at 7:33 PM, Bama Chick said:

The “whistleblower” that Jim Jordan and James Comer said disappeared and was supposedly giving info on Hunter Biden’s laptop?

Just been arrested for being a Chinese spy lol
 

 


And was paying a Trump administration official.

Accusations, confessions yadda yadda.

 

I read the indictment in full. I guess I've become numbed to the whole thing because I kept thinking the guy they were referring to was the bastard son of Richard Secord following in his father's footsteps. But yeah, if this is the guy that the GQP is relying on to bring down the Biden Crime Family...well I guess I've become numbed to their standards as well because none of this surprises me. At all.

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I think I’ve read mention of this in a tfg thread, but wanted to document it here, on the HB thread.

 

Trump Blasts Prosecutor He Appointed for Not Giving Hunter Biden ‘Death Sentence’

The GOP's failure to produce evidence that the "Biden Crime Family" actually committed crimes isn't stopping the former president from calling for justice
 
Quote

DONALD TRUMP IS once again mad online, this time because a federal prosecutor he appointed struck a plea deal with Hunter Biden that didn’t involved the president’s son being put to death.

“Weiss is a COWARD, a smaller version of Bill Barr, who never had the courage to do what everyone knows should have been done,” the former president wrote of U.S. Attorney David Weiss. “He gave out a traffic ticket instead of a death sentence. Because of the two Democrat Senators in Delaware, they got to choose and/or approve him. Maybe the judge presiding will have the courage and intellect to break up this cesspool of crime. The collusion and corruption is beyond description. TWO TIERS OF JUSTICE!”

Biden pleaded guilty last month to two misdemeanor tax charges. Trump was furious at the time, writing that the “corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere ‘traffic ticket.'” Republicans echoed his outrage railing that the “slap on the wrist,” as House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer put it, was part of a Democratic conspiracy to let Biden off the hook for more serious crimes.
 

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-suggests-hunter-biden-death-penalty-1234786435/

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1 hour ago, Willfully Horn said:

I think I’ve read mention of this in a tfg thread, but wanted to document it here, on the HB thread.

 

Trump Blasts Prosecutor He Appointed for Not Giving Hunter Biden ‘Death Sentence’

The GOP's failure to produce evidence that the "Biden Crime Family" actually committed crimes isn't stopping the former president from calling for justice
 

lulz

Quote

the “corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere ‘traffic ticket.'” 

He is such a child.  He's like Jesse Gemstone.

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Good to see, heading into a multi-trial season where recalling dates and years is going to be paramount to his own defense, that the Donald is on his A-game.  

"Because of the two Democrat Senators in Delaware, they got to choose and/or approve him."

 

Let's break it down for you MAGA dipshits who probably think this is gospel and further proof of the deep state/Biden crime family conspiracy:

1.  Senators don't "choose" the U.S. Attorneys for the districts in their state.  U.S. Attorneys for all federal districts are nominated by the sitting President of the United States.

2.  Senators don't "approve" the U.S. Attorney.  After the nomination and hearings, they vote to confirm or deny a nominee.  Weiss was confirmed by a voice voice in early 2018, meaning it was an overwhelming majority-they opted not to even bother with a roll call vote.  That decision was made by the majority party in control of the U.S. Senate for the entirety of 2018-Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party which held a firm majority in that Chamber.  Even they said, "He's good, send him through."  It had nothing to do with there being 2 Senators present from Delaware.  How the fuck do you think U.S. Attorney/Federal Judge nominations work?  There's always going to be 2 U.S. Senators from the state housing that District on every single vote.  You think it only comes up with Delaware, you illiterate shitbag?

3.  Joe Biden was a private citizen at the time of this nomination, hearing, and confirmation.  Maybe he knew Weiss prior to, but everybody in Delaware knows everybody else...it's like 9 square blocks.  

4.  Back to who gets to "choose and/or approve [Weiss]"  Weiss was hand picked in late 2017 and put forth in early 2018 to the Senate.  As is standard practice, he was nominated by the then sitting President of the United States.  Donald J. Trump.  That's you, Commander Dipshit.  You nominated this guy.  It is literally impossible you're this fucking stupid.  

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Marcy Wheeler breaks down evidence that Hunter's digital life was compromised and that WaPo has botched reporting on it. It's too long to copy and paste in its entirety, but worth a read. For the first time, I actually kind of feel bad for Hunter. It seems like ratfuckers turned his entire digital life into a Black Mirror episode while he was struggling with addiction. And there's more indication, as if any was actually necessary, that the FBI is still full of stupid right-wing dipshits who are all too happy to help ratfuck Democrats:

Quote

Plus, WaPo is being coy here: The laptop may have played little part in a tax investigation reliant on bank records. But it did play a central part in allegations, including WaPo’s own reporting, of foreign influence peddling involving (among others), Burisma, the hack of which became public between the time the IRS started using this laptop as evidence and the time they learned Rudy Giuliani had a role in it.

That part is all pitch, though — yet another instance where Devlin Barrett writes down what right wingers tell him to say and WaPo reports it as if it were true. It’s what WaPo pays him to do.

It’s the claims about the laptop — from an outlet sitting on two reports that raise questions about its reliability — that I find especially curious. Start with this paragraph, which conflates the steps FBI took in November 2019 to authenticate that the laptop was Hunter Biden’s — subscriber information from Apple, a purchase record in Delaware, two but maybe only two phone calls with Mac Isaac, and “other intelligence” — with what the AUSA on the case said about it almost a year later.

 

After being handed the device by a Wilmington, Del., computer shop owner in 2019, the FBI quickly concluded by examining computer data as well as Hunter Biden’s phone records that the laptop was genuinely his and did not seem to have been tampered with or manipulated.

 

That last bit — “did not seem to have been tampered with or manipulated” — published by an outlet sitting on two reports that show the laptop was tampered with? It is a paraphrase from a meeting in October 2020, not a description of legal process served in November 2019. And therein lies a big part of the scandal.

In the actual quote, Wolf — painted as the bad guy here by the IRS agents — was saying that it “is not a priority” for the investigative team to see “if anything was added to the computer by a third party” even after learning that the lawyer for the President, whose demands for this investigation had raised influence problems from the start of the investigation, had some kind of tie to it.

Screenshot-2023-07-18-at-10.15.11-1030x606.png

This is as if Peter Strzok, rather than just failing to make sure people writing FISA applications had adverse information about the Steele dossier (which is what the IG Report showed), had instead said, “fuck it, I don’t care if it is tainted.” These notes show the Hunter Biden investigative team did what right wingers accuse the Crossfire Hurricane team of doing, blowing off the import of the involvement of a campaign in a key piece of evidence.

...

Because the laptop had become a huge story, “we were just making sure that everything was being handled appropriately,” Devlin Barrett’s star “whistleblower” explained.

And Shapley shows Wolf saying that they had no knowledge, in October 2020, of any fabrications on the laptop. But he records her saying that after “computer guy” said “they could do a csv list that shows when everything was created.”

That is, Wolf said this after “computer guy” described something they had not yet done ten months after obtaining the laptop, had not yet done two months after getting warrants relying on the laptop, that they would need to do to make sure the laptop had not been altered by third parties. Wolf said this after “computer guy” described that the FBI had not done very basic things to verify the integrity of the laptop they should have done ten months earlier, before relying on it.

It seems pretty clear the most obvious theory, that someone hacked Hunter's shit and loaded up genuine emails and files along with a bunch of bullshit on a laptop that may or may not have at one point been Hunter's, is likely correct (and that WaPo's reporter is a piece of shit hack):

Quote

Again, I’m not sure whether WaPo’s journalists are dishonest or just stupid. But this exchange is critical for another reason. Lesley Wolf’s assertion about the integrity of the laptop relied on correlation: by matching emails on the laptop with emails that could be obtained directly from the provider.

 

There are emails and other items hat corroborate the items on the laptop and hard dive.

 

This is the method that Washington Examiner’s expert used to proclaim the laptop authentic. It’s the method that a bunch of other right wing journalists have gotten experts to use to validate the laptop.

If you steal someone’s iCloud account, the way to prove that it is authentic is by proving that it is their iCloud account, which is what correlation does.

But “computer guy” was suggesting using a forensic method, ten months after the fact, to test the integrity of the laptop itself. DDOSecrets has done this test on the publicly released emails — and half of them have a last modified date of February 11, 2019, right towards the end of the timeline I show above.

Lesley Wolf made her comment on October 22, 2020. No one in Gary Shapley’s interview asked him what happened after that. Nor does Devlin Barrett seem curious to ask.

If “computer guy” subsequently did this test, there’s good reason to believe he would have found what DDOSecrets did: that while these emails match the ones in Hunter Biden’s accounts, they were all packaged up on February 11, 2019, at a time it’s not clear Hunter Biden had control of his own digital accounts.

If you use a forensic method to validate these files, you’re not going to get the same results as a correlative method. That’s why it would be very useful for the debate about the laptop for WaPo to share the two known expert reports done using forensic methods on the drive itself, rather than correlation.

There’s one more hilarious thing about this Devlin Barrett creation. He, predictably, repeats his “whistleblower’s” complaints about not getting stuff pertaining to the laptop.

 

Shapley said a federal prosecutor on the case, Lesley Wolf, told him that the IRS agents couldn’t see the laptop. “At some point, they were going to give a redacted version, but we don’t even think we got a full — even a redacted version. We only got piecemeal items,” Shapley told the committee, voicing his frustration that he would have liked to see all the data.

 

Devlin Barrett — dishonest or stupid? — quotes Shapley’s testimony out of context. The full quotation makes it clear Shapley is referring, again, to a discussion that took place on October 22, 2020. More importantly, Shapley is not referring to the laptop!!

 

And when it came down to item number 33 on page 2, Special Agent [Whistleblower X] is saying like, well, I haven’t seen this information. And AUSA Lesley Wolf says, well, you haven’t seen it because, for a variety of reasons, they kept it from the agents. And she said that at some point they were going to give a redacted version, but we don’t even think we got a full — even a redacted version. We only got piecemeal items [my emphasis]

 

That particular quotation, identified clearly as item number 33, is the report about the laptop — which I’ll copy again here to make it so easy even Devlin Barrett might understand it:

Screenshot-2023-07-18-at-07.58.36-1030x220.png

To help a right winger allege corruption, Devlin Barrett quotes his complaint that his team was not given the actual forensic report about the laptop. Corruption, in this story, is withholding a forensic report that might tell people what they need to know about the laptop.

And yet that is precisely what WaPo itself refuses to do: release two reports that raise questions about the quality and completeness of the drive.

According to Devlin Barrett’s own standard — at least the standard he applies when he’s parroting right wingers — withholding such a report is a sign of corruption.

Even the plain language of Gary Shapley’s contemporaneous notes show that Devlin’s claim that, “information provided by IRS agents to Congress” “put … the accusations” that “the data might have been doctored or possibly a Russian-backed disinformation campaign” … “to rest” is wildly false (dishonest or stupid?). It does the opposite: It shows that ten months after beginning to rely on the laptop, the FBI still had not done basic forensic checks of the data on it and the AUSA leading the investigation didn’t think doing so was a priority.

That should be the story. That’s the scandal.

And true to form, Devlin Barrett spins the exactly opposite tale.

The WaPo has in its possession some of the only available information that can help to explain what the FBI saw by March 2020, two independent equivalent reports to the one that Shapley implies it is corrupt to withhold.

And unlike the Washington Examiner, they won’t release it.

 

 

Edited by wildcat09
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22 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

I would vote for a Jamie Raskin/Katie Porter ticket (or vice versa) in a heartbeat. Both are goddamn national treasures. 
 

 

I like Raskin.  Sharp, effective, measured.  Does not often insert his foot unlike Nadler or Schiff. 

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16 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Pretty sure Hunters hanging more than five inches. Just call him to the floor to whip it out already so the gop can get what they want and move on.

Reminds me of a, supposedly, true story about Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason sitting in a steambath in Hollywood.  Berle was rumored to have an enormous schlong. 

Some dude goes up to Berle and essentially challenges him to a literal dick-measuring contest.  Berle kinda hesitated for a sec and Gleason said "Go ahead, Milton, just take out enough to win."

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Well, Shapley and this Zeigler guy have not been fully discredited, but, again, I think they're suffering from the ever-present confirmation bias of seeing what they wanted to see and wanting to "get their man" without regard to any other considerations.

I think that's just the nature of investigations.  Highly subjective.

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1 hour ago, bluto said:

Raskin is damn sharp. Mark kelly and Raskin ticket would be damn solid imo, Kelly maybe is too moderate for national ticket. 

Raskin recently declined the opportunity to run for the opening senate seat in Maryland. I think his recovery is his top priority.

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9 minutes ago, Satchel said:

Raskin recently declined the opportunity to run for the opening senate seat in Maryland. I think his recovery is his top priority.

He is probably not going to get another good opportunity, since Chris Van Hollen is 64 and Raskin himself is 60.  And the favorite for the open seat is 52. 

But that's okay.  He does good work in the House.  Honestly, I want some of these names to stay in the House.  They bring some credibility to a chamber full of clowns. 

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Plot twist, no deal at the last minute, judge asked if Hunter is immune from other charges, prosecutors said no we are still investigating, defense says whaaaat no deal.

 

The shitshow continues

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Am I the only Joe Biden supporter in America who doesn't give a flip about what happens with Hunter?  I mean, I don't want the guy unfairly prosecuted, but he certainly seems to have crossed plenty of legal lines in the sand over the years.  I'm skeptical there are any unusual or illegal foreign dalliances, but tax fuckery, drugs, etc.?  Good luck, Hunter.

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1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

Am I the only Joe Biden supporter in America who doesn't give a flip about what happens with Hunter?  I mean, I don't want the guy unfairly prosecuted, but he certainly seems to have crossed plenty of legal lines in the sand over the years.  I'm skeptical there is any uncommon foreign dalliances, but tax fuckery, drugs, etc.?  Good luck, Hunter.

Hunter Biden is not an elected official or in the employ of the executive branch. I absolutely do not give a flying fuck after 4 years of Ivanka and Jared using the federal government as collatoral

 

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Read earlier this week that over 40% of Republican voters believe that Hunter Biden works in the current Administration.  Not "talks to the President frequently", but is a security clearance card-carrying White House senior staffer.  

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7 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Read earlier this week that over 40% of Republican voters believe that Hunter Biden works in the current Administration.  Not "talks to the President frequently", but is a security clearance card-carrying White House senior staffer.  

I'm surprised it's that low. We're not talking about smart people, here.

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Yeah, I gotta go back and find that.  It wasn't a terribly partisan entity that did the poll either.  But last couple of days of hearing MAGA congress members calling for his head I think probably boosted that number even higher.  I knew shit was getting real when Boebert called for his impeachment.  The reporter asked "do you mean indictment?"  And she kinda gave a "yeah, and that too!" shrug and pouty harumph.  

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