The revelation that Joe Biden is the “big guy” in his son’s China-Deal e-mails isn’t the only matter he should have to address at tonight’s presidential debate.
He might also explain why the FBI subpoenaed his son’s laptop as part of a money-laundering probe. And he might tell Americans why the agency had “nothing to add” when Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe firmly stated the laptop and its contents are not part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
That is, after all, the claim of Biden and his tub thumpers: “Russia” is behind a “smear.”
The debate moderator, NBC’s Democrat cutout Kristen Welker, won’t likely mention the laptop, or ask why Joe Biden lied in saying he knew nothing about his son’s remarkably profitable foreign business adventures.
That means it might be up to President Trump.
Money Laundering
The FBI subpoenaed the MacBook Pro from John Paul Mac Isaac, who owns the repair shop where the machine was abandoned, Fox News reported yesterday,
He became something of a bit player in Biden-Burisma and Biden-China influence-peddling dramas when he turned the hard drive on the laptop over to Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani, who in turn gave it to the New York Post.
The Post published emails that confirm the Democrat presidential candidate lied last year when he said he knew nothing about his son Hunter Biden’s famously profitable business deals. Apparently, foreign businesses lined-up around the block to hire a notorious alcoholic and drug addict to join corporate boards and lucrative ventures.
But now we know why the FBI wanted the laptop: suspected money-laundering.
“The FBI’s subpoena of a laptop and hard drive purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden came in connection with a money laundering investigation in late 2019, according to documents obtained by Fox News and verified by multiple federal law enforcement officials who reviewed them,” the network reported:
Multiple federal law enforcement officials, as well as two separate government officials, confirmed the authenticity of these documents, which were signed by FBI Special Agent Joshua Wilson. Wilson did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
One of the documents, obtained by Fox News, was designated as an FBI “Receipt for Property” form, which details the bureau’s interactions with John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of “The Mac Shop” who reported the laptop’s contents to authorities.
The document has a “Case ID” section, which is filled in with a hand-written number: 272D-BA-3065729.
The first three digits, 272, are FBI code for money laundering, and 272D means “Money Laundering, Unknown SUA [Specified Unlawful Activity] — White Collar Crime Program.”
Hunter Biden is certainly white collar, and not just from spilling white powder.
“The FBI cannot open a case without predication, so they believed there was predication for criminal activity,” a government source told Fox News:
“This means there was sufficient evidence to believe that there was criminal conduct.”
Another document, obtained by Fox News, was a subpoena sent to Isaac to testify before U.S. District Court in Delaware on Dec. 9, 2019. One page of the subpoena shows what appears to be serial numbers for a laptop and hard drive taken into possession.
But that’s not all, at least where Joe Biden must reveal what he really knows about his son’s globe-straddling business empire.
“If a criminal case was opened and subpoenas were issued, that means there is a high likelihood that both the laptop and hard drive contain fruits of criminal activity,” the source said.
Nothing to Add
Of course, the FBI is mum and didn’t discuss the case with Fox, but it did answer a letter from Senator Ron Johnson, chieftain of the Homeland Security Committee, who asked the FBI whether the laptop and its contents are “Russian disinformation.”
Johnson wrote the agency in light of DNI Ratcliffe’s firm statement that the scandal is not of Russian provenance, despite unsubstantiated claims from hate-Trump leftist Representative Adam Schiff.
“It’s funny that some of the people who complain the most about intelligence being politicized are the ones politicizing the intelligence,” Ratcliffe told Maria Bartiromo of Fox News on Monday.
“Let me be clear,” he continued:
The intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. And we have shared no intelligence with Chairman Schiff, or any member of Congress, that Hunter Biden’s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign.
It’s simply not true.
The FBI, apparently, agrees.
“The FBI is the primary investigative agency responsible for the integrity and security of the 2020 election, and as such, we are focused on an array of threats, including the threat of malign foreign influence operations,” wrote Jill Tyson, the agency’s assistant director for congressional affairs:
Regarding the subject of your letter, we have nothing to add at this time to the October 19th public statement by the Director of National Intelligence about the available actionable intelligence. If actionable intelligence is developed, the FBI in consultation with the Intelligence Community will evaluate the need to provide defensive briefings to you and the Committee pursuant to the established notification framework.
In keeping with standard practice, again, the agency did not say whether it was investigating Hunter Biden.
