If Hunter's 'Laptop From Hell' is 100% Authentic, Will 'Dirty 51' Ex-Spooks Be Held Accountable?
18:48 GMT 26.05.2022 (Updated: 12:08 GMT 08.08.2022)
© AP Photo / Andrew Harnik
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A copy of Hunter Biden's hard drive originating from the "laptop from hell" is 100% authentic, according to a former Secret Service agent who conducted an examination of the device at the request of the Washington Examiner. This serious development is a game changer, according to legal observers.
On 24 May, the Washington Examiner broke that it had commissioned Konstantinos "Gus" Dimitrelos, an ex-Secret Service agent who has testified in over 100 classified, criminal and civil matters at the state, federal, and international levels to carry out a full forensic examination of Hunter Biden's infamous hard drive to determine whether there are any signs of tampering. According to the media outlet, Dimitrelos cross-referenced thousands of files, photos, geolocation data, and other information on the drive using a technique called "digital sandwiching" and came to conclusion that Hunter "was the only person responsible for the activity on this hard drive and all of its stored data".
"The Washington Examiner's new reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop saga marks a giant leap in the public's understanding of a significant story of a national importance", wrote Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor. "To have suggested the laptop's contents were the result of a hack, a plant, or (most preposterously, Russian intelligence service disinformation) was grossly irresponsible".
Earlier, in March, The New York Times admitted that it had authenticated a "cash of files" that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr Biden in a Delaware repair shop. For its part, The Washington Post, reported on 30 March that thousands of emails "purportedly from the laptop computer of Hunter Biden" had been proven to be "authentic communications", claiming that "the vast majority of the data — and most of the nearly 129,000 emails it contained — could not be verified by either of the two security experts who reviewed the data for The Post".
According to McCarthy, Dimitrelos' forensic analysis of the hard drive has finally dotted the i's and crossed the t's.
26 May 2022, 17:14 GMT
'Russian Disinformation' Yarn
The New York Post was the first to break the "laptop from hell" story in October 2020. Last week, Miranda Devine, a conservative Australian columnist, drew attention to the fact that 51 former intelligence officials who played a crucial role in suppressing The Post's story shortly before the 2020 presidential election "have never been brought to account".
"The 'Dirty 51' lied by painting our stories as Russian disinformation in a 19 October 2020 letter they signed and delivered to Politico five days after The Post exposé and three days before the final presidential debate of the election campaign", Devine wrote for The Post on 18 May.
The letter, titled “Public Statement on the Hunter Biden emails" was signed by former CIA Directors John Brennan, Leon Panetta, and Mike Hayden, former acting CIA Director Michael Morell, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and other top ex-intelligence operatives. It claimed that the data on Hunter Biden's hard drive "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation". However, none of them had seen or checked the hard drive, Devine underscored.
"In America, our vast intelligence organisations have become too involved in election outcomes abroad and apparently likely inserted themselves into domestic elections, if so, in flagrant violation of our laws", says Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel. "At minimum, all should triple check pronouncements and assessments sold to the public as 'intelligence' when, in hindsight, so many key claims were outlandish and recklessly false".
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the American Freedom Tour at the Austin Convention Center on May 14, 2022 in Austin, Texas.
© AFP 2023 / BRANDON BELL
Trump Lawyers' Calling Upon US Intelligence Community
Last week, Tim Parlatore, a lawyer representing former President Donald Trump, and his colleagues filed five letters of complaint with the agencies that formerly employed the signatories of the 2020 letter, including the CIA, the National Security Agency, the director of National Intelligence, and the Department of Defence.
According to Parlatore, the signatories had to seek a prepublication review from the agencies they used to serve at. However, it appears that none of the intelligence agencies were involved in reviewing the letter. This seems to be particularly embarrassing given that Hunter Biden's hard drive was later proven to be authentic. The lawyer cited a poll that said that as many as 17% of Biden voters wouldn’t have voted for him if they knew about the content of Hunter Biden's "laptop from hell".
"Despite this grave interference in our American democratic process, it still appears that no investigative or corrective action was taken against any of [the 51 ex-intelligence officials]", Parlatore wrote, as quoted by the New York Post. He urged the agencies "to proceed immediately with legal action to enforce the interests of the United States of America in ensuring that such breaches of vital security provisions do not continue to go unchecked".
It seems unlikely that any of the 51 former agents will be held accountable as "the next news cycle will sweep it from the public's consciousness", believes Robert Bishop, a retired Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and business executive.
"The Department of Justice and other federal agencies are Biden's praetorian guard", Bishop says. "Their role is to protect the president regardless of factual claims".
According to The Epoch Times, the ex-spooks in question are still standing by their claims and insisting that roughly two years ago they were "concerned about Russian disinformation efforts". Despite being debunked, the "Russian disinformation" hoax with regard to Hunter's laptop and the infamous "Trump-Russia collusion" story are continuing to sell themselves.
"The Democrats used the Trump-Russian collusion story back in 2016. They will push this story to the very end, using the Russia-Ukraine conflict to cover up Biden's crime and family bribery," Bishop says.
