Hunter Biden claims laptop, allegations against him have 'literally every earmark of what the Russians did'

In a podcast interview posted on Friday, Hunter Biden claimed the allegations of corruption that have been raised against him have "earmarks" of Russian disinformation.

Hunter Biden told host Moby, "This may not in every aspect be a Russian disinformation campaign, but it has literally every earmark of what the Russians did."

"It's called eliminationist rhetoric. Eliminationist rhetoric was something that the Nazis came up with as a tool to undermine their political rivals. And then Putin has fine-tuned it."

The Biden son explained how Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted to those speaking out against him when he was coming to power.

"So what did he do? He didn't argue with them on the merits. He didn't argue with them about economic policy and democracy and the freedom to vote because he knew he'd lose that argument. So what did he do? He labeled them pedophiles. He planted child pornography on their laptops and their computers."

"And so maybe only 10 percent of the people then in the public would believe this sh*t. But then when he would turn around after he got 10, 15, 20 percent of the people believe in the worst thing you can possibly think about a human being and then when he turns around and said, and also he's a money launderer and he is against the Russian people. It’s a lot easier for them to believe that."

Allegations of corruption against Hunter Biden began stemmed from his own laptop's hard drive, which he left behind in a Delaware computer repair shop. When he did not come to pick it up, the repair shop owner turned it over to the FBI, retaining a copy of that hard drive. The FBI sat on it all through 2019, and the hard drive made its way from the repair shop to Rudy Giuliani. In 2020, the New York Post published details of what they found on that laptop. 

51 former intelligence officials signed onto a letter calling the laptop "Russian disinformation" after they were prompted to do so by the Biden campaign. An IRS whistleblower revealed in June that the FBI knew the laptop and its contents were authentic back in 2019.

The Biden campaign coordinated with organizers of the infamous letter to get the statement out to the media, specifically to the Washington Post first.

Emails between officials revealed that the Biden campaign had preferred a specific Washington Post reporter to run the statement first, and also sent a lengthy script of information to share at various levels of sourcing: on the record, off the record, and on background.

"Between us, the campaign would like [redacted] to go first. Please share with the campaign when you share with [redacted]. But by all means, get it to other reporters as well," one email read.

Off the record information given in the email read: "Make sure reporters know that we are not making a call on whether the materials are true or not, just that Moscow played a role in getting the information out. I’m afraid people might miss the point and say we are saying this is all disinformation."

As the letter was shopped around, the Biden campaign was kept updated. It eventually landed in Politico, where the headline read "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say." This sentiment was repeated ad naseum by press, Biden campaign spokespersons, and even by Joe Biden on the debate stage against Donald Trump. When the lie was revealed, The New York Times and others had to walk back their initial reporting and admit that the laptop, and its contents, were real.