CBS News Verifies Hunter Biden's Laptop

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Facts

  • On Monday, CBS News said it confirmed the authenticity of data from Hunter Biden’s laptop – 769 days after the story first broke. CBS's report follows long-delayed verification by the Washington Post and New York Times in March.
  • Initial 2020 reports on the laptop by The New York Post were widely dismissed as unreliable, and even labeled Russian disinformation by some. Twitter and Facebook blocked or limited sharing of the article, which was published just days before the presidential election.
  • CBS reportedly received an "exact copy" of the laptop data, and commissioned the Minneapolis-based Computer Forensics Services (CFS) to conduct an independent analysis. The report found no evidence of data modification, fabrication, or manipulation. Mark Lanterman, the CFS's chief technology officer, concluded that the data was authentic and created by Hunter Biden.
  • The laptop has gained much attention from House Republicans, who will take the majority this January, and have promised to focus their investigatory powers on Hunter Biden's business dealings. In a recent letter to the AG, FBI director, and the Delaware US Attorney, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) alleged that Hunter Biden and the president's brother James "profited from a $5 million wire from a company connected to CEFC (the Chinese Energy firm) in August of 2017."
  • Hunter Biden’s laptop has produced material about his personal struggles and his foreign business ventures in Ukraine and with China. The information has not provided any clear evidence that Joe Biden benefited from his son's business dealings.

Sources: New York Post, FOX News, CBS, and Yahoo News.

Narratives

  • Republican narrative, as provided by Townhall. It’s bad enough CBS News commissioned an independent analyst to confirm what was already proven two years ago. But then it provided the sanitized version of the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop. The details are more salacious than CBS cares to acknowledge, and House Republicans are going to get to the bottom of his shady dealings starting in January.
  • Democratic narrative, as provided by Daily Kos. So this is how the GOP is going to celebrate its House majority? There are numerous subjects, domestic and foreign, they could be investigating, but instead they’re going to focus on Hunter Biden’s laptop. This will do nothing to help the American people. Instead it will serve conspiracy theory fodder to supporters of former Pres. Trump and degrade trust in government investigations. They should be ashamed.

Predictions