The FBI allegedly knew Hunter Biden’s laptop was authentic nearly a year before they pressured Big Tech platforms to censor the New York Post’s reporting on it ahead of the 2020 election.
In his remarks before the House Ways and Means Committee, IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley testified that the FBI verified the authenticity of Hunter’s laptop in November 2019, a month after the agency became aware of the laptop’s existence and allegations that its contents potentially contained “evidence of a crime.” According to Shapley, the FBI purportedly authenticated the computer “by matching the device number against Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud ID.”
“When the FBI took possession of the device in December 2019, they notified the IRS that it likely contained evidence of tax crimes,” Shapley said. “Thus, Special Agent [redacted] drafted an affidavit for a Title 26 search warrant, which a magistrate judge approved that month.”
Shapley — who became supervisor of the investigation in January 2020 — went on to claim that once he and his team began collaborating with the FBI, Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office, and Department of Justice (DOJ) Tax, “it soon became clear … this case was being handled differently than any [he’d] seen before.” Shapley asserted that by the time Joe Biden became the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee in April 2020, DOJ officials were clearly “dragg[ing] their feet” on the IRS team’s efforts to investigate the matter, adding that by June 2020, “those same career [DOJ] officials were already delaying overt investigative actions.”
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