Election interference: Hunter Biden laptop edition
And tonight, the Trump campaign is accusing Twitter and Facebook of censorship after the social media companies blocked the spread of an unverified story about former Vice President Joe Biden’s son and the laptop allegedly full of his old emails. It’s a story raising concerns about whether it’s real or just designed to sow confusion in the final weeks of the election.
Experts say it has all the homemarks of information laundering.
This looks like your classic disinformation campaign.
Eric O’Neill is a former FBI operative steal the information with a cyber attack, get the emails from Hunter Biden’s account and then put them on these laptops that are left at a repair store and that’s how the information is now laundered into the public.
Who do you think is behind this?
Well, the Russians would be my number one guess.
Social media outlets were quick to limit the spread of the story. Twitter briefly suspending the accounts of the Trump campaign and White House press secretary after they tried to share it.
Twitter and Facebook have limited the distribution of that Hunter Biden story, and last night Twitter appeared to suspend the Twitter account of White House press secretary Katie McAnany when she tried to share that story.
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Damn! You know a story is shady when Facebook is saying whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Maybe people shouldn’t see this.
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For a long time, Giuliani has been openly working to dig up dirt and promote disinformation on the Bidens, and now the Washington Post is also reporting that the intelligence community was so concerned that the Russians were using Giuliani to feed Russian disinformation to the President that they warned the White House about it last year. We’re being told by two people who have been briefed on what the FBI is doing is that they’re looking into whether these unverified emails about Hunter Biden published by the New York Post about foreign business dealings are part of the bigger Russian disinformation effort, which is well under way in these final days of the 2020 race. The intelligence community has said for months that Russia is very actively engaged in a disinformation campaign in the 2020 election, in particular against Joe Biden to denigrate his campaign in favor of President Trump.
I think there are a lot of issues related to this New York Post story that portly referenced the Hunter Biden email. And as I and several of my former colleagues have pointed out publicly that it does bear the hallmarks of Russian disinformation.
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Intel Committee chair Adam Schiff, who said this discussion over Hunter Biden and the story that came out in the New York Post that is highly questionable and dubiously sourced is part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Well, what I can tell you for sure is that Rudy Giuliani was the source of this hard drive and this information for the New York Post story. Also, the intelligence community has been saying repeatedly that Rudy Giuliani is the vehicle for Russian disinformation right now about Hunter Biden and the Bidens to say that there’s no evidence that somehow these emails and text messages or this hard drive is part of a potentially a Russian disinformation campaign doesn’t make any sense to me, Hallie.
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Biden story, which we haven’t covered as much for journalistic reasons, uh, because of the lack of verification. Don’t put unverified disinformation on.
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It’s not every day where you see a headline like former New York City mayor, president’s personal lawyer and longtime friend … White House was warned that Rudy was the target of Russian intelligence operation to feed misinformation to Trump.
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My colleagues at the Post reported tonight a pretty explosive story, which is that U.S. Intelligence agencies believed that Rudy Giuliani was being worked over by Russian intelligence assets as a conduit to feed misinformation to the president of the United States. Apparently, according to U.S. Intelligence, the Russians were onto him and and were using Giuliani’s interest in Ukraine to feed him misinformation to the president and to try to influence the American political process. And that’s a big deal.
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Serious questions tonight about whether the Russians are using Rudy Giuliani to interfere in the U.S. Presidential election. Alex, there are fears that what Giuliani is now pushing here in the United States could actually be part of Russia’s latest and very massive disinformation campaign in the U.S. presidential election.
Massive indeed, Wolf. We do know that it’s a very active Russian campaign. That’s according to the US intelligence community and that Rudy Giuliani already had open contact with a person that the U.S. has called an agent for the Kremlin. Now, we are being told by two people who have been briefed on what the FBI is doing, that they’re looking into whether these unverified emails about Hunter Biden that were published earlier this week by the New York Post about his business dealings in Ukraine and China are part of this bigger Russian disinformation effort in the 2020 election. Now, those efforts, according to the intelligence community, are to denigrate the Biden campaign and the former vice president in favor of President Trump.
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The past few days, President Trump has highlighted a report by the New York Post about Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son. There are major questions about the origins and the accuracy of that story. The president’s personal attorney was peddling Russian disinformation.
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Former senior intelligence official tells me that President Trump was warned Giuliani’s information was likely Russian disinformation by national security advisor Robert O’Brien, CIA director Gina Haspel, director of national intelligence Joe Maguire, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Attorney General Bill Barr, all told the president not to trust Giuliani, and this was first reported duty by the Washington Post. The Biden campaign says that this is Russian disinformation.
New questions today about an unverified report in the New York Post on Joe Biden’s son Hunter, among them is Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer tied to a Russian effort to influence the spy agencies have gathered intelligence that the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was dealing with alleged Russian intelligence agencies last week Giuliani and former Trump official Steve Bannon provided the New York Post with unverified emails, allegedly linking one of Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian partners with a possible meeting with Joe Biden when he was vice president. A meeting the Biden campaign says never took place. Experts say the emails cannot be authenticated. Some may have been altered or are fake.
We have no idea whether or not the emails are legitimate, but this whole operation looks right out of the Kremlin playbook: Hack and dump.
Tonight there are growing questions about the man once known as America’s mayor, Rudy Giuliani, and if he is being used by Russia to influence the 2020 presidential campaign.
President Trump on the attack today going after Joe Biden and his family with dubious accusations.
I’ll tell you what, it’s an organized crime family as far as I’m concerned.
The president is referencing a tabloid newspaper story with emails purportedly swiped from the vice president’s son Hunter. But CBS News has learned the president was personally warned by the national security advisor Robert O’Brien that the man who provided the information to the tabloid, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, was the target of a Russian influence campaign aimed at discrediting Biden. CBS News has learned the FBI is now looking into whether the information found on the device may be part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
This looks like Russian intelligence. This walks like Russian intelligence, this talks like Russian intelligence.
This effort by Rudy Giuliani and the New York Post and and Steve Bannon to cook up a supposed dirt on Joe Biden looks like a classic Russian playbook disinformation campaign. So when the intelligence community goes in and warns Donald Trump that Rudy Giuliani is being worked over by Russian intelligence, and then Rudy Giuliani suddenly comes forward with these mysteriously created emails probably hacked to a Russian intelligence operation, we have to acknowledge the fact that the president of the United States is supporting, is condoning, is welcoming a Russian intelligence operation in 2020. Nicole, This is collusion in plain sight.
This is this classic textbook, uh Soviet Russian tradecraft at work. The Russians have analyzed the target. They understand that the president and his enablers crave, uh, dirt on vice President Biden, whether it’s real or contrived, that doesn’t matter to them. And so all of a sudden two two and a half weeks before the election, this laptop appears somehow, uh, without … and emails on it, without any metadata, uh, it just it’s all very curious. But the so here you have a willing target and the Russians who are very sophisticated about how to exploit a willing target. And to me, that’s what’s it work here.
The FBI says this laptop is not Russian disinformation. So what are you talking about here? This laptop is real. It’s not just the laptop. There’s other emails. There’s text messages. They are real. So according to the U.S. government government …
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I know everybody to look at that, but that’s not what we’re hearing from the FBI.
Why don’t we want to report this? This is the one of the most power because families in Washington. You’re okay with our interest being sold out to profit of Joe Biden and his family when when we’re suffering during a pandemic from communist China keeps doing business dealing.
As as you know perfectly well, I’m a journalist and a reporter and I follow the facts, and there has never been any issues in terms of corruption. Now, let me ask you this. Yesterday, the FBI …
How do you know that?
I’m talking about reporting and any evidence. I’m talking to you now.
I wish that you guys would start and start doing that verification.
No, we’re not going to do your work for you.
I want to ask you a question.
The FBI …
And find out if this is verified …
I think this is one of the biggest scandals I have ever seen, and you don’t cover it. You want to talk about … Leslie … Leslie …
Well, because it can’t be verified.
You want to talk about insignificant things.
What can’t be verified?
The laptop.
Why do you say that?
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Was that your laptop?
I know if the laptop. I don’t have any idea. I have no idea.
So, it could have been yours.
Of course. There could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me. It could be that I was hacked. It could be that there was the that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me.
And you didn’t drop off a laptop to be repaired in Delaware?
No, no. Not that I remember at all.
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In October 2020, a New York Post article said that emails purportedly showing shady dealings in Ukraine by Hunter Biden were found on a laptop computer that he supposedly left in a Delaware repair shop in 2019. The details were sketchy at best, and last month a declassified intelligence report said that before the election, the Russians had launched a smear campaign against Joe Biden and his family.
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Take a look at what’s going on and then you say that shouldn’t.
It’s the biggest scandal out there, Leslie.
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Does it surprise you at all that this information Rudy Giuliani is peddling very well could be connected to some sort of Russian government disinformation campaign?
Uh, and, you know, the idea that the president that the White House council and others were made well, we know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin. That’s been clear for well over a year now that they’ve been pushing this, uh, false narrative about the vice president and his son. Clearly, the origins of this whole smear are from the Kremlin, and the president is only too happy to have Kremlin help in … in trying to amplify it.
It’s not like a Rudy Giuliani is peddling this information in a vacuum, a congressman. Take a look at this picture of the president in the Oval office holding up a copy of the New York Post touting this conspiracy theory. It’s made its way all the way to the commander in chief, uh, with a big smile on his face.
Yes, uh, well, look, uh you know, I think we know who the driving force behind this smear has been all along and it’s been the president and the Kremlin. The Kremlin has an obvious interest in denigrating Joe Biden. They want Donald Trump to win. They recognize he’s a weak president. He’s been utterly unwilling to stand up to Putin and other autocrats. He has diminished NATO. He is criticized and weakened our alliance with our transatlantic partners. He’s been the gift that doesn’t stop giving for the Kremlin. So clearly they want to help him, so they want to denigrate the vice president. The intelligence community has made that abundantly clear. Um, and this this particular smear, though, has also been acknowledged to come from the Kremlin. And there it is in the Oval Office another wonderful propaganda coup for Vladimir Putin seeing the president of the United States holding up a newspaper, promoting Kremlin propaganda. It’s really incredible.
The Washington Post, as you saw, is reporting that when the president was actually warned of concerns about Giuliani and where he was getting all this information uh warned by U.S. intelligence law enforcement authorities. The president simply shrugged his shoulders and responded, “That’s Rudy.” How much is that part of the problem here that the president at least, according to this reporting in the Washington Post, doesn’t seem to care?
Well, it’s a big part of the problem, and and, you know, we know for a long time, look, Rudy Giuliani, um, doesn’t, uh, you know, run the president. The president runs Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani is doing the president’s bidding. He was doing the president’s bidding late last year and earlier this year in Ukraine, he was doing the president’s bidding when he was meeting with an agent of the Kremlin. He was doing the president’s bidding when he was pushing out this smear and trying to get the Ukrainians to push out the smear of his opponent because he was deathly afraid of being exactly where we are right now, which is less than three weeks from the election losing badly to Joe Biden. But the fact that he would continue to do it, I guess at this point shouldn’t surprise us, but, uh, this is the story of Donald Trump, uh, utter unwillingness to stand up to the Kremlin, a willingness to use their help, no matter how dishonest and disreputable, a willingness to undermine our own elections by getting Kremlin help and amplifying it. And there’s only one remedy at this point and that’s to vote him out.
Have you as a member of the gang of eight, the top leadership in the the Congress, the Senate, and the House and members of the intelligence committee, have you been formally briefed on what the Russians are up to right now in trying to peddle this kind of information?
Well, I was in the intelligence committee today to see what the latest was and frankly, we haven’t gotten much from the intelligence community very recently, which concerns me. They have at times some of the leadership like the director Ratcliffe not been very forthcoming in terms of the intelligence on the Russian threat and been promoting this false equivalence with other countries. So, you know, I wish I could tell you more, Wolf. I wish the intelligence community was at liberty to tell the public more, but we do know this: The Russians are once again actively involved in trying to denicate denigrate the vice president. Donald Trump is helping them. And and we know that they are amplifying the president’s misinformation about absentee ballots. This is another gift. The president is giving the Russians. Unlike 2016, when the Russians had to make up this stuff, they now can simply use the president’s own false statements and amplify them. It is extraordinary, Wolf, that a present of the United States is telling his own citizens and the rest of the world that America can’t hold a free and fair election. The Kremlin just has to push out that false narrative by the President of the United States.
Congressman Adam Schiff, thank you so much for joining us.
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You have called Biden a criminal. Why is that?
He is a criminal. He’s a criminal. He got caught, read his laptop, and you know who’s a criminal? You’re a criminal for not reporting it. You are a criminal for not reporting it. Let me tell you something. Joe Biden is a criminal and he’s been a criminal for a long time, and you’re a criminal in the media for not reporting it. Good luck, everybody. Have a good day.
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The President has said, and you have tweeted, that allegations of wrongdoing based on files pulled from Hunter Biden’s laptop are Russian disinformation. There is a new book by a political reporter that finds some of the files on there are genuine. Is the White House still going with Russian disinformation?
I think it’s broadly known and widely known, that there was a broad range of Russian disinformation back in 2020.
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Fifty former national intelligence folks who said that what this he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant. They have said that this is has all the four five former heads of the CIA. Both parties say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage.
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This is classic Trump. We have four days left and all of a sudden there’s a laptop. There’s overwhelming evidence that from the intelligence community that the Russians are engaged.
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Do you still think that the story from the fall, about your son Hunter, were Russian disinformation?
Yes, yes, yes.
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It’s the last effort in this desperate campaign to smear me and my family. The vast majority of the intelligence people have come out and said there’s no basis at all.
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I get calls from my father to tell me that The New York Times is calling, but my old partner Eric, who literally has done me harm for I don’t know how long is the one taking the calls because my father will not stop sending the calls to Eric. I have another New York Times reporter calling about my representation of the literally Dr. Patrick Ho, the fucking spy chief of China who started the company that my partner, who was worth $323 billion, founded. It is now missing. The richest man in the world is missing who was my partner. He was missing since I last saw him in his $58 million apartment and signed a $4 billion deal to build the fucking largest fucking LNG port in the world. And I am receiving calls from Southern District of New York, from the U.S. attorney himself, my best friend in business, Devon [Archer], has named me as a witness without telling me. In a criminal case and my father without telling me.
Source: Tony Heller, bitchute.com/video/dPpYTubvKRk/