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Senator John Kennedy grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray in the Senate on Tuesday, demanding to know why the agency did not come out and say that Hunter Biden's laptop "was real" when it was reported on by the New York Post in October 2020. The FBI had known about the existence of the laptop for nearly a year before the contents were made public. Despite this, the FBI had warned Twitter execs to be on the lookout for potential Russian disinformation, such as a hypothetical Hunter Biden laptop.
"Why didn't the FBI just say 'hey, the laptop's real?' Why didn't you just tell everybody 'the laptop's for real. We're not vouching for what's on it, but it's real. This isn't a fiction.'" Kennedy asked Wray.
"Well, I, as you might imagine," Wray replied, "the FBI cannot, especially in a time like that, be talking about an ongoing investigation. Second, I would tell you that at least my understanding is that both the FBI folks involved in the conversations and the Twitter folks involved in the conversations, both say that the FBI did not direct Twitter to suppress that particular story."
"But others were in government," Kennedy said.
"Again, I can't speak to others in government. That's part of the point that I was trying to make because the—"
"You're the FBI," Kennedy interrupted, "you're not part of the White House and part of Homeland Security. You're not supposed to be political. You see all this controversy going on? Why didn't the FBI say 'timeout folks, we're not getting in the middle of this but the laptop is real.'"
"Again, we have to be very careful about what we can say— especially in the middle of an election season— because that's precisely some of the problems that led to my predecessor's negative findings from the inspector general," Wray said.
The laptop was widely derided as having been Russian disinformation. This messaging came from the Biden campaign, was disseminated from there to the intelligence community, and was picked up as fact by mainstream media outlets, many of which had to go on to eat their words as it was proven, again and again, that the contents belonged to Hunter Biden.
In addition to cracked-out photos of the younger Biden, his genitals, and his dates, the laptop contained potential evidence of influence peddling, information about the Biden family business, emails, correspondence, and more. This material has been used as a starting point for Republicans to investigate the Bidens' relationship to foreign business partners and to insinuate that Joe Biden has been guilty of selling the power of his office during his time as Vice President in Barack Obama's White House.
"Why didn't the FBI just say 'hey, the laptop's real?' Why didn't you just tell everybody 'the laptop's for real. We're not vouching for what's on it, but it's real. This isn't a fiction.'" Kennedy asked Wray.
"Well, I, as you might imagine," Wray replied, "the FBI cannot, especially in a time like that, be talking about an ongoing investigation. Second, I would tell you that at least my understanding is that both the FBI folks involved in the conversations and the Twitter folks involved in the conversations, both say that the FBI did not direct Twitter to suppress that particular story."
"But others were in government," Kennedy said.
"Again, I can't speak to others in government. That's part of the point that I was trying to make because the—"
"You're the FBI," Kennedy interrupted, "you're not part of the White House and part of Homeland Security. You're not supposed to be political. You see all this controversy going on? Why didn't the FBI say 'timeout folks, we're not getting in the middle of this but the laptop is real.'"
"Again, we have to be very careful about what we can say— especially in the middle of an election season— because that's precisely some of the problems that led to my predecessor's negative findings from the inspector general," Wray said.
The laptop was widely derided as having been Russian disinformation. This messaging came from the Biden campaign, was disseminated from there to the intelligence community, and was picked up as fact by mainstream media outlets, many of which had to go on to eat their words as it was proven, again and again, that the contents belonged to Hunter Biden.
In addition to cracked-out photos of the younger Biden, his genitals, and his dates, the laptop contained potential evidence of influence peddling, information about the Biden family business, emails, correspondence, and more. This material has been used as a starting point for Republicans to investigate the Bidens' relationship to foreign business partners and to insinuate that Joe Biden has been guilty of selling the power of his office during his time as Vice President in Barack Obama's White House.
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