Miranda Devine

Miranda Devine

Opinion

Hunter Biden’s laptop was denied, disparaged, censored — now it’s evidence of a crime

The evolution of Hunter Biden laptop denial over the last three and a half years has been mind-boggling.

You need a chart to keep up.

First the laptop was a non-story (thanks, NPR).

The evolution of Hunter Biden laptop denial is hard to believe.

Then it was “hacked material” (thanks, Twitter).

Then it was “Russian disinformation” (thanks, CIA).

Then it was a “Russian plant” (thanks, Joe Biden).

Then it was “stolen” by Russians.

(Hunter weighed in with crystal clarity: “I have no idea … There could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me. It could be that I was hacked. It could be that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me.”)

Then it was “hacked by Rudy Giuliani” (thanks, Kevin “Sugar Brother” Morris).

And now it is the backbone of the prosecution case against the first son in the felony gun trial he faces in Delaware in a little over a week.

“The defendant’s theory about the laptop is a conspiracy theory with no supporting evidence,” says a prosecution filing signed by special counsel David Weiss.
Weiss plans to use the laptop to help prove that Hunter lied on a federal form when he bought a gun in October 2018 and claimed he was not using drugs.

“The defendant’s theory about the laptop is a conspiracy theory with no supporting evidence,” says a prosecution filing signed by special counsel David Weiss.

Hunter’s “laptop is real (it will be introduced as a trial exhibit) and it contains significant evidence of the defendant’s guilt.”

Weiss plans to use the laptop to help prove that Hunter lied on a federal form when he bought a gun in October 2018 and claimed he was not using drugs.

Hunter “has not provided any evidence or information that shows that his laptop contains false information, and the government’s evidence shows the opposite.”

Prosecutors also have told the court the laptop is “self-authenticating,” that Hunter left it at a computer store in April 2019, and that the contents match what they obtained from a search warrant for his iCloud.

It would have been a whole lot easier for everyone to just admit the laptop was real in the first place, instead of censoring the New York Post and creating an elaborate cover-up with the help of the FBI, CIA and Big Tech, which only heightened suspicions that what it contained must be super-dangerous for Joe Biden.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive,” goes the line from Sir Walter Scott about the perils of lying.

It’s a lesson the president and his party seem incapable of learning.