Truth Cops: Leaked Documents Outline DHS Plan To Police Disinformation (1 Viewer)

[SaintForLife]

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY is quietly broadening its efforts to curb speech it considers dangerous, an investigation by The Intercept has found. Years of internal DHS memos, emails, and documents — obtained via leaks and an ongoing lawsuit, as well as public documents — illustrate an expansive effort by the agency to influence tech platforms.

The work, much of which remains unknown to the American public, came into clearer view earlier this year when DHS announced a new “Disinformation Governance Board”: a panel designed to police misinformation (false information spread unintentionally), disinformation (false information spread intentionally), and malinformation (factual information shared, typically out of context, with harmful intent) that allegedly threatens U.S. interests. While the board was widely ridiculed, immediately scaled back, and then shut down within a few months, other initiatives are underway as DHS pivots to monitoring social media now that its original mandate — the war on terror — has been wound down.

Behind closed doors, and through pressure on private platforms, the U.S. government has used its power to try to shape online discourse. According to meeting minutes and other records appended to a lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican who is also running for Senate, discussions have ranged from the scale and scope of government intervention in online discourse to the mechanics of streamlining takedown requests for false or intentionally misleading information.

“Platforms have got to get comfortable with gov’t. It’s really interesting how hesitant they remain,” Microsoft executive Matt Masterson, a former DHS official, texted Jen Easterly, a DHS director, in February.

In a March meeting, Laura Dehmlow, an FBI official, warned that the threat of subversive information on social media could undermine support for the U.S. government. Dehmlow, according to notes of the discussion attended by senior executives from Twitter and JPMorgan Chase, stressed that “we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable.”

Key Takeaways

• Though DHS shuttered its controversial Disinformation Governance Board, a strategic document reveals the underlying work is ongoing.
• DHS plans to target inaccurate information on “the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine.”
• Facebook created a special portal for DHS and government partners to report disinformation directly.

-The work is primarily done by CISA, a DHS sub-agency tasked with protecting critical national infrastructure.

-DHS, the FBI, and several media entities are having biweekly meetings as recently as August.
DHS considered countering disinformation relating to content that undermines trust in financial systems and courts.

-The FBI agent who primed social media platforms to take down the Hunter Biden laptop story continued to have a role in DHS policy discussions.

...In retrospect, the New York Post reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 election provides an elucidating case study of how this works in an increasingly partisan environment.

Much of the public ignored the reporting or assumed it was false, as over 50 former intelligence officials charged that the laptop story was a creation of a “Russian disinformation” campaign. The mainstream media was primed by allegations of election interference in 2016 — and, to be sure, Trump did attempt to use the laptop to disrupt the Biden campaign. Twitter ended up banning links to the New York Post’s report on the contents of the laptop during the crucial weeks leading up to the election. Facebook also throttled users’ ability to view the story.

In recent months, a clearer picture of the government’s influence has emerged.

In an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast in August, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Facebook had limited sharing of the New York Post’s reporting after a conversation with the FBI. “The background here is that the FBI came to us — some folks on our team — and was like, ‘Hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election,’” Zuckerberg told Rogan. The FBI told them, Zuckerberg said, that “‘We have it on notice that basically there’s about to be some kind of dump.’” When the Post’s story came out in October 2020, Facebook thought it “fit that pattern” the FBI had told them to look out for.

Zuckerberg said he regretted the decision, as did Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter at the time. Despite claims that the laptop’s contents were forged, the Washington Post confirmed that at least some of the emails on the laptop were authentic. The New York Times authenticated emails from the laptop — many of which were cited in the original New York Post reporting from October 2020 — that prosecutors have examined as part of the Justice Department’s probe into whether the president’s son violated the law on a range of issues, including money laundering, tax-related offenses, and foreign lobbying registration.

Documents filed in federal court as part of a lawsuit by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana add a layer of new detail to Zuckerberg’s anecdote, revealing that officials leading the push to expand the government’s reach into disinformation also played a quiet role in shaping the decisions of social media giants around the New York Post story.

Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation

Under the guise of counterterrorism, the government is accelerating pressure on social media companies to crack down on speech the feds deem disinformation.

theintercept.com

 

[MT15]

Don’t act like the Trump administration/campaign only made one request to Twitter. That’s just an outrageous lie. They made about the same number of requests. This is so typical of a Trump supporter (and SFL, you absolutely count in that number). You cannot have a nuanced conversation with any of them because they are so angry and confrontational. Plus they will always stretch the truth to cover Trump’s arse and exaggerate anything any democrat does. Unreasonable, and tedious to boot.

 

[MT15]

I hope you're kidding.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/hunter-biden-laptop-data-examined/

Surely you know that was a collection of files that were examined, that were claimed to be from the “laptop”. That wasn’t the actual computer at all.

Also, the examination proved that there were a whole lot of files and material added to that bunch of files after the date that the “laptop” was supposedly given to the FBI?

This is from the WaPo article that you provided. This is how I can tell you never read the article:

“In their examinations, Green and Williams found evidence that people other than Hunter Biden had accessed the drive and written files to it, both before and after the initial stories in the New York Post and long after the laptop itself had been turned over to the FBI.

Maxey had alerted The Washington Post to this issue in advance, saying that others had accessed the data to examine its contents and make copies of files. But the lack of what experts call a “clean chain of custody” undermined Green’s and Williams’s ability to determine the authenticity of most of the drive’s contents.

“The drive is a mess,” Green said.”

Out of some 230,000 files on the hard drive, they could verify about 22,000 emails as being genuine. The rest of the material on the drive is suspect.

Also from same article:

“Soon after that period of inactivity — and months after the laptop itself had been taken into FBI custody — three new folders were created on the drive. Dated Sept. 1 and 2, 2020, they bore the names “Desktop Documents,” “Biden Burisma” and “Hunter. Burisma Documents.”

Williams also found records on the drive that indicated someone may have accessed the drive from a West Coast location in October 2020, little more than a week after the first New York Post stories on Hunter Biden’s laptop appeared.

Over the next few days, somebody created three additional folders on the drive, titled, “Mail,” “Salacious Pics Package” and “Big Guy File” — an apparent reference to Joe Biden.”

 

[Snarky Sack]

Surely you know that was a collection of files that were examined, that were claimed to be from the “laptop”. That wasn’t the actual computer at all.

Also, the examination proved that there were a whole lot of files and material added to that bunch of files after the date that the “laptop” was supposedly given to the FBI?

This is from the WaPo article that you provided. This is how I can tell you never read the article:

“In their examinations, Green and Williams found evidence that people other than Hunter Biden had accessed the drive and written files to it, both before and after the initial stories in the New York Post and long after the laptop itself had been turned over to the FBI.

Maxey had alerted The Washington Post to this issue in advance, saying that others had accessed the data to examine its contents and make copies of files. But the lack of what experts call a “clean chain of custody” undermined Green’s and Williams’s ability to determine the authenticity of most of the drive’s contents.

“The drive is a mess,” Green said.”

Out of some 230,000 files on the hard drive, they could verify about 22,000 emails as being genuine. The rest of the material on the drive is suspect.

Also from same article:

“Soon after that period of inactivity — and months after the laptop itself had been taken into FBI custody — three new folders were created on the drive. Dated Sept. 1 and 2, 2020, they bore the names “Desktop Documents,” “Biden Burisma” and “Hunter. Burisma Documents.”

Williams also found records on the drive that indicated someone may have accessed the drive from a West Coast location in October 2020, little more than a week after the first New York Post stories on Hunter Biden’s laptop appeared.

Over the next few days, somebody created three additional folders on the drive, titled, “Mail,” “Salacious Pics Package” and “Big Guy File” — an apparent reference to Joe Biden.”

I was answering samiam's claim that the FBI never had the laptop. Sorry you typed all that for nothing.

 

[MT15]

I was answering samiam's claim that the FBI never had the laptop. Sorry you typed all that for nothing.

I wasn’t responding to that. I was responding this claim:

I know it is not new information. The FBI has had Hunter Biden's laptop for years. There is no evidence that anyone put any fake information on it. You have a link to that CT?

Which you then repeated:

Link, or conversation over.

The article you put forth has all the information about material added to the collection of files over the years, well after the FBI supposedly took the laptop.

I know the irony isn’t lost on you that you demand we question sworn witness testimony, the actual results of the execution of a search warrant and actual tapes of criminal activity that the DOJ will be using as evidence, yet you believe this crazy made-up “laptop” story whole cloth. Bannon, Stone and Giuliani have their grubby little paws all over this political dirty trick.

 

[Snarky Sack]

I wasn’t responding to that. I was responding this claim:

Which you then repeated:

The article you put forth has all the information about material added to the collection of files over the years, well after the FBI supposedly took the laptop.

Those were the results of an examination done by the Washington Post hired forensic computer techs of a supposed copy of the laptop that the Washington post had. I doubt seriously that the FBI lent WAPO the physical laptop.

In the discussion you decided to insert yourself into without knowing what it was about, samiam was claiming that the FBI has no physical laptop, which is absurd.

I know the irony isn’t lost on you that you demand we question sworn witness testimony, the actual results of the execution of a search warrant and actual tapes of criminal activity that the DOJ will be using as evidence, yet you believe this crazy made-up “laptop” story whole cloth. Bannon, Stone and Giuliani have their grubby little paws all over this political dirty trick.

I'm sure Giuliani was heavily involved in promoting the laptop story.

But, unless you are claiming that Giuliani somehow induced Hunter Biden to smoke crack with prostitutes and take selfies of it, and to email business associates about holding ten percent for The Big Guy, Rudy is guilty only of publicizing true information.

 

[MT15]

Those were the results of an examination done by the Washington Post hired forensic computer techs of a supposed copy of the laptop that the Washington post had. I doubt seriously that the FBI lent WAPO the physical laptop.

In the discussion you decided to insert yourself into without knowing what it was about, samiam was claiming that the FBI has no physical laptop, which is absurd.

I'm sure Giuliani was heavily involved in promoting the laptop story.

But, unless you are claiming that Giuliani somehow induced Hunter Biden to smoke crack with prostitutes and take selfies of it, and to email business associates about holding ten percent for The Big Guy, Rudy is guilty only of publicizing true information.

This is one of your more bizarre tics on here. You do realize everyone can go through a thread and read the entire thing? Nobody is “inserting themselves into a discussion”, it’s not like I cannot read every word that was said before I decided to comment. You can’t control who reads what you post or who comments on what you post. This is a message board, that is sorta the whole purpose behind it.

Nobody has the laptop except maybe the FBI. Did they ever acknowledge that they have it? It has certainly never seen the light of day since they took it, if they even did.

So the version that WaPo has is the only one that the NY Post and everyone is operating from. And it’s been tampered with extensively. Which is the whole point.

About 2% of the material WaPo examined could be verified. The vast majority of the emails, including the “Big Guy” one, cannot be verified. The email files aren’t complete, they lack critical information that would prove their legitimacy. Wonder why that is? Also, the pictures were added later, after the date the FBI supposedly took the laptop. Why would that be?

Gee, I wonder why you are so ready to give credence to this complete mess of files without a chain of custody and even though there are serious issues about its origins? Yet, you insist that everyone must assume the FBI and DOJ are out here manufacturing evidence about Trump?

It also seems relevant to ask a couple more common sense questions about the supposed “laptop”.

Why did the NY Post sit on the story and only release it close to the election? And then refuse to allow independent experts to examine the files at that time?

The FBI had possession (supposedly) of this laptop for over a year before that, if there were such incriminating contents, why no arrest? Why no action from Trump’s FBI and DOJ?

 

[Snarky Sack]

This is one of your more bizarre tics on here. You do realize everyone can go through a thread and read the entire thing? Nobody is “inserting themselves into a discussion”, it’s not like I cannot read every word that was said before I decided to comment. You can’t control who reads what you post or who comments on what you post. This is a message board, that is sorta the whole purpose behind it.

Nobody has the laptop except maybe the FBI. Did they ever acknowledge that they have it? It has certainly never seen the light of day since they took it, if they even did.

Yes, the FBI has the laptop. In the discussion you jumped in on, I had given up on talking to samiam due to his bizarre and unsupported statement that they did not. You need to read more than the WaPo. My mistake using it as a source, but I know many progs trust nothing else.

WASHINGTON — The FBI “verified” the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop in November 2019 and a federal computer expert assessed “it was not manipulated in any way,” IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley told Congress in explosive testimony released Thursday.

Investigators probing President Biden’s son for tax fraud and other crimes were not given full access to the laptop’s contents, however, Shapley told the House Ways and Means Committee during his May 26 deposition.

“The computer guy said that they could do a CSV list that shows when everything was created … the whole discussion was about can we rely on this information on the laptop, is it Hunter Biden’s? And their opinion was, it was, and it was not manipulated in any way,” he said.

FBI ‘verified’ authenticity of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop in November 2019: IRS whistleblower

IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley told Congress the laptop was “verified” in November 2019 and an expert assessed “it was not manipulated in any way.”

nypost.com

If you don't believe the NY Post, good. Be skeptical. Click on the link and read for yourself.

So the version that WaPo has is the only one that the NY Post and everyone is operating from. And it’s been tampered with extensively. Which is the whole point.

I'd love to operate from the real laptop. When will the FBI let the public have it? Clearly the answer is never. The FBI is covering for the Bidens.

About 2% of the material WaPo examined could be verified. The vast majority of the emails, including the “Big Guy” one, cannot be verified. The email files aren’t complete, they lack critical information that would prove their legitimacy. Wonder why that is? Also, the pictures were added later, after the date the FBI supposedly took the laptop. Why would that be?

Gee, I wonder why you are so ready to give credence to this complete mess of files without a chain of custody and even though there are serious issues about its origins? Yet, you insist that everyone must assume the FBI and DOJ are out here manufacturing evidence about Trump?

When the FBI hides things from the people who pay their salary it raises suspicions. When they keep hiding them, even though we know that they are hiding them, the suspicions among all but the willingly gullible.

It also seems relevant to ask a couple more common sense questions about the supposed “laptop”.

Why did the NY Post sit on the story and only release it close to the election? And then refuse to allow independent experts to examine the files at that time?

Maybe they were trying to sway the election results in Trump's favor, as the rest of the media - with prompting from the FBI - has been trying to sway elections away from Trump's favor. There is no such thing as unbiased media, that's why you would have to read a variety of sources to be informed.

The FBI had possession (supposedly) of this laptop for over a year before that, if there were such incriminating contents, why no arrest? Why no action from Trump’s FBI and DOJ?

It was never "Trump's FBI and DOJ," or he would have told them to stop constantly digging for dirt on him. You are too intelligent to believe that.

*Delaware US Attorney David Weiss sought to bring federal charges against Hunter, 53, in the Central District of California and in Washington, DC, last year and was denied both times by Biden-appointed US attorneys Martin Estrada and Matthew Graves, respectively.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

Yes, the FBI has the laptop. In the discussion you jumped in on, I had given up on talking to samiam due to his bizarre and unsupported statement that they did not. You need to read more than the WaPo. My mistake using it as a source, but I know many progs trust nothing else.

WASHINGTON — The FBI “verified” the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop in November 2019 and a federal computer expert assessed “it was not manipulated in any way,” IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley told Congress in explosive testimony released Thursday.

Investigators probing President Biden’s son for tax fraud and other crimes were not given full access to the laptop’s contents, however, Shapley told the House Ways and Means Committee during his May 26 deposition.

“The computer guy said that they could do a CSV list that shows when everything was created … the whole discussion was about can we rely on this information on the laptop, is it Hunter Biden’s? And their opinion was, it was, and it was not manipulated in any way,” he said.

FBI ‘verified’ authenticity of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop in November 2019: IRS whistleblower

IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley told Congress the laptop was “verified” in November 2019 and an expert assessed “it was not manipulated in any way.”

nypost.com

If you don't believe the NY Post, good. Be skeptical. Click on the link and read for yourself.

I'd love to operate from the real laptop. When will the FBI let the public have it? Clearly the answer is never. The FBI is covering for the Bidens.

When the FBI hides things from the people who pay their salary it raises suspicions. When they keep hiding them, even though we know that they are hiding them, the suspicions among all but the willingly gullible.

Maybe they were trying to sway the election results in Trump's favor, as the rest of the media - with prompting from the FBI - has been trying to sway elections away from Trump's favor. There is no such thing as unbiased media, that's why you would have to read a variety of sources to be informed.

It was never "Trump's FBI and DOJ," or he would have told them to stop constantly digging for dirt on him. You are too intelligent to believe that.

*Delaware US Attorney David Weiss sought to bring federal charges against Hunter, 53, in the Central District of California and in Washington, DC, last year and was denied both times by Biden-appointed US attorneys Martin Estrada and Matthew Graves, respectively.

Just so we are clear, you know that the data being passed around is on various external drives and not the laptop itself, right?

 

[SaintForLife]

 

[SaintForLife]

 

[MT15]

Yes, the FBI has the laptop. In the discussion you jumped in on, I had given up on talking to samiam due to his bizarre and unsupported statement that they did not. You need to read more than the WaPo. My mistake using it as a source, but I know many progs trust nothing else.

WASHINGTON — The FBI “verified” the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop in November 2019 and a federal computer expert assessed “it was not manipulated in any way,” IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley told Congress in explosive testimony released Thursday.

Investigators probing President Biden’s son for tax fraud and other crimes were not given full access to the laptop’s contents, however, Shapley told the House Ways and Means Committee during his May 26 deposition.

“The computer guy said that they could do a CSV list that shows when everything was created … the whole discussion was about can we rely on this information on the laptop, is it Hunter Biden’s? And their opinion was, it was, and it was not manipulated in any way,” he said.

FBI ‘verified’ authenticity of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop in November 2019: IRS whistleblower

IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley told Congress the laptop was “verified” in November 2019 and an expert assessed “it was not manipulated in any way.”

nypost.com

If you don't believe the NY Post, good. Be skeptical. Click on the link and read for yourself.

I'd love to operate from the real laptop. When will the FBI let the public have it? Clearly the answer is never. The FBI is covering for the Bidens.

When the FBI hides things from the people who pay their salary it raises suspicions. When they keep hiding them, even though we know that they are hiding them, the suspicions among all but the willingly gullible.

Maybe they were trying to sway the election results in Trump's favor, as the rest of the media - with prompting from the FBI - has been trying to sway elections away from Trump's favor. There is no such thing as unbiased media, that's why you would have to read a variety of sources to be informed.

It was never "Trump's FBI and DOJ," or he would have told them to stop constantly digging for dirt on him. You are too intelligent to believe that.

*Delaware US Attorney David Weiss sought to bring federal charges against Hunter, 53, in the Central District of California and in Washington, DC, last year and was denied both times by Biden-appointed US attorneys Martin Estrada and Matthew Graves, respectively.

Is there a different source than Shapley? He’s not FBI, and he’s not exactly an unbiased source, and I remember him being fairly well discredited. And neither is the NY Post, and that appears to be all that you have offered.

Has the FBI ever acknowledged that they have the actual laptop?

How do you explain all the files that were added after the date the FBI supposedly took possession?

How do you explain all the various changes in the origin story as offered by the legally blind computer repairman?

How do you square your skepticism of evidence against Trump with your swallowing this very suspect story whole?

 

[Snarky Sack]

Is there a different source than Shapley? He’s not FBI, and he’s not exactly an unbiased source, and I remember him being fairly well discredited. And neither is the NY Post, and that appears to be all that you have offered.

Has the FBI ever acknowledged that they have the actual laptop?

Here, Congressman Matt Gaetz very literally brings the receipt, and a senior FBI Agent acknowledges that the FBI was given the laptop:

0:45



Gaetz: Hunter Biden's password on his laptop was "hunter02." He drops it off at a repair store. I'm holding the receipt for Max Computer Repair, where in December 2019, they turned over this laptop to the FBI. And what now you're telling me right here is that as the assistant director of FBI Cyber, you don't know where this is after it was turned over to you three years ago?

Bryan A Vorndran, Assistant Director, FBI Cyber Division: Yes Sir. That's an accurate statement.

How do you explain all the files that were added after the date the FBI supposedly took possession?

Someone added them, if the WaPo story is correct. The CBS story is different:

Copy of what's believed to be Hunter Biden's laptop data turned over by repair shop to FBI showed no tampering, analysis says

The laptop and its alleged contents will be a key part of the investigation into the Biden family that House Republicans plan to take up in January.

www.cbsnews.com

Data from a laptop that the lawyer for a Delaware computer repair shop owner says was left by Hunter Biden in 2019 – and which the shop owner later provided to the FBI under subpoena – shows no evidence of tampering or fabrication, according to an independent review commissioned by CBS News.

Brian Della Rocca, the lawyer for the shop owner, provided to CBS News what he called an "exact copy" of the laptop data provided to federal investigators nearly three years ago. Della Rocca said he considers it "clean" because it predates versions that were widely circulated by Republican operatives to attack then-candidate Joe Biden before the 2020 presidential election.

The independent analysis, by two cyber investigators from Minneapolis-based Computer Forensics Services, found no evidence that the user data had been modified, fabricated or tampered with. Nor did it find any new files originating after April 2019, when store records indicate Biden dropped it off for repair.

I don't think either the WaPo or CBS' experts are lying. I think that there are different versions of copies of the laptop made the rounds. If you know that Rudy Gulliani added files to one of the versions, I'll believe the proof you saw, if you tell me where to find it.

Again, Rudy did not force H. Biden to pose naked with European prostitutes and take selfies smoking crack. That's on him. So is keeping ten percent for The Big Guy.

The real version, that we would need to have access to is the one that the FBI was given, and they are covering up whatever is on it.

They have refused to provide information to congress under the non-existent "investigatory privilege," due to the ongoing investigation of H. Biden. Apparently that will end with a plea deal. What excuse will they use when they no longer have that one?

How do you explain all the various changes in the origin story as offered by the legally blind computer repairman?

Not familiar with them, but show me and I'll comment.

How do you square your skepticism of evidence against Trump with your swallowing this very suspect story whole?

I'm not swallowing anything whole. I believe what is in the pictures that I've seen. I'm asking to see the evidence that the FBI is hiding.

Samiam seemed to imply that the copies that are floating are actually not copies of the laptop itself of information put there over time. He claims that the laptop has files pulled from the cloud en masse and placed on the laptop that was then turned into the FBI, in a disinformation operation against the Biden family. That's what I got from his bizarre rantings anyway.

Well that is a very interesting CT, but the FBI has the only evidence that could prove whether that happened or not.

Should we see it?

 

[cuddlemonkey]

Here, Congressman Matt Gaetz very literally brings the receipt, and a senior FBI Agent acknowledges that the FBI was given the laptop:

0:45



Gaetz: Hunter Biden's password on his laptop was "hunter02." He drops it off at a repair store. I'm holding the receipt for Max Computer Repair, where in December 2019, they turned over this laptop to the FBI. And what now you're telling me right here is that as the assistant director of FBI Cyber, you don't know where this is after it was turned over to you three years ago?

Bryan A Vorndran, Assistant Director, FBI Cyber Division: Yes Sir. That's an accurate statement.


Someone added them, if the WaPo story is correct. The CBS story is different:

Copy of what's believed to be Hunter Biden's laptop data turned over by repair shop to FBI showed no tampering, analysis says

The laptop and its alleged contents will be a key part of the investigation into the Biden family that House Republicans plan to take up in January.

www.cbsnews.com

Data from a laptop that the lawyer for a Delaware computer repair shop owner says was left by Hunter Biden in 2019 – and which the shop owner later provided to the FBI under subpoena – shows no evidence of tampering or fabrication, according to an independent review commissioned by CBS News.

Brian Della Rocca, the lawyer for the shop owner, provided to CBS News what he called an "exact copy" of the laptop data provided to federal investigators nearly three years ago. Della Rocca said he considers it "clean" because it predates versions that were widely circulated by Republican operatives to attack then-candidate Joe Biden before the 2020 presidential election.

The independent analysis, by two cyber investigators from Minneapolis-based Computer Forensics Services, found no evidence that the user data had been modified, fabricated or tampered with. Nor did it find any new files originating after April 2019, when store records indicate Biden dropped it off for repair.

I don't think either the WaPo or CBS' experts are lying. I think that there are different versions of copies of the laptop made the rounds. If you know that Rudy Gulliani added files to one of the versions, I'll believe the proof you saw, if you tell me where to find it.

Again, Rudy did not force H. Biden to pose naked with European prostitutes and take selfies smoking crack. That's on him. So is keeping ten percent for The Big Guy.

The real version, that we would need to have access to is the one that the FBI was given, and they are covering up whatever is on it.

They have refused to provide information to congress under the non-existent "investigatory privilege," due to the ongoing investigation of H. Biden. Apparently that will end with a plea deal. What excuse will they use when they no longer have that one?

Not familiar with them, but show me and I'll comment.

I'm not swallowing anything whole. I believe what is in the pictures that I've seen. I'm asking to see the evidence that the FBI is hiding.

Samiam seemed to imply that the copies that are floating are actually not copies of the laptop itself of information put there over time. He claims that the laptop has files pulled from the cloud en masse and placed on the laptop that was then turned into the FBI, in a disinformation operation against the Biden family. That's what I got from his bizarre rantings anyway.

Well that is a very interesting CT, but the FBI has the only evidence that could prove whether that happened or not.

Should we see it?

I will ask again:

You are aware that what is being passed around to various news sites is an external storage device, not a physical computer, right? And it's possible that whatever the FBI may have in custody is different than what is being passed around, right?

 

[MT15]

Here, Congressman Matt Gaetz very literally brings the receipt, and a senior FBI Agent acknowledges that the FBI was given the laptop:

0:45



Gaetz: Hunter Biden's password on his laptop was "hunter02." He drops it off at a repair store. I'm holding the receipt for Max Computer Repair, where in December 2019, they turned over this laptop to the FBI. And what now you're telling me right here is that as the assistant director of FBI Cyber, you don't know where this is after it was turned over to you three years ago?

Bryan A Vorndran, Assistant Director, FBI Cyber Division: Yes Sir. That's an accurate statement.


Someone added them, if the WaPo story is correct. The CBS story is different:

Copy of what's believed to be Hunter Biden's laptop data turned over by repair shop to FBI showed no tampering, analysis says

The laptop and its alleged contents will be a key part of the investigation into the Biden family that House Republicans plan to take up in January.

www.cbsnews.com

Data from a laptop that the lawyer for a Delaware computer repair shop owner says was left by Hunter Biden in 2019 – and which the shop owner later provided to the FBI under subpoena – shows no evidence of tampering or fabrication, according to an independent review commissioned by CBS News.

Brian Della Rocca, the lawyer for the shop owner, provided to CBS News what he called an "exact copy" of the laptop data provided to federal investigators nearly three years ago. Della Rocca said he considers it "clean" because it predates versions that were widely circulated by Republican operatives to attack then-candidate Joe Biden before the 2020 presidential election.

The independent analysis, by two cyber investigators from Minneapolis-based Computer Forensics Services, found no evidence that the user data had been modified, fabricated or tampered with. Nor did it find any new files originating after April 2019, when store records indicate Biden dropped it off for repair.

I don't think either the WaPo or CBS' experts are lying. I think that there are different versions of copies of the laptop made the rounds. If you know that Rudy Gulliani added files to one of the versions, I'll believe the proof you saw, if you tell me where to find it.

Again, Rudy did not force H. Biden to pose naked with European prostitutes and take selfies smoking crack. That's on him. So is keeping ten percent for The Big Guy.

The real version, that we would need to have access to is the one that the FBI was given, and they are covering up whatever is on it.

They have refused to provide information to congress under the non-existent "investigatory privilege," due to the ongoing investigation of H. Biden. Apparently that will end with a plea deal. What excuse will they use when they no longer have that one?

Not familiar with them, but show me and I'll comment.

I'm not swallowing anything whole. I believe what is in the pictures that I've seen. I'm asking to see the evidence that the FBI is hiding.

Samiam seemed to imply that the copies that are floating are actually not copies of the laptop itself of information put there over time. He claims that the laptop has files pulled from the cloud en masse and placed on the laptop that was then turned into the FBI, in a disinformation operation against the Biden family. That's what I got from his bizarre rantings anyway.

Well that is a very interesting CT, but the FBI has the only evidence that could prove whether that happened or not.

Should we see it?

So you are confusing two different things. There is the actual laptop, and there is a flash drive containing a whole bunch of files that came from the repair shop owner, who gave it to Rudy, who gave it to Bannon, etc., etc. WaPo analyzed that one, and it was highly manipulated and had many, many files added to it. You posted the article yourself, I don’t need to link it for you.

From what you just posted, the FBI doesn’t have the actual laptop any longer, but that’s the first I’ve heard that. I would need to know more than that tiny snippet, I highly doubt Gaetz is trying to get at the truth at all, and I don’t know anything about this witness either.

As for the CBS article: it’s notable in what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say what they found on their version that was given to them by the lawyer of the computer repair guy, and how it was different than the Rudy/NY Post version, which WaPo had analyzed. The article is written by someone who isn’t actually neutral, but self-identifies as a conservative so one would assume had there been anything on there that was notable, she would have said so.

Here is one article that discusses the repair shop owner and how he didn’t recognize the pictures that the NY Post showed as being on the original computer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...unter-biden-laptop-disinfo-guy-who-leaked-it/

 

[Snarky Sack]

So you are confusing two different things. There is the actual laptop, and there is a flash drive containing a whole bunch of files that came from the repair shop owner, who gave it to Rudy, who gave it to Bannon, etc., etc. WaPo analyzed that one, and it was highly manipulated and had many, many files added to it. You posted the article yourself, I don’t need to link it for you.

Fine, but that has nothing to do with the laptop the FBI has.

From what you just posted, the FBI doesn’t have the actual laptop any longer, but that’s the first I’ve heard that. I would need to know more than that tiny snippet, I highly doubt Gaetz is trying to get at the truth at all, and I don’t know anything about this witness either.

No . . . the head of cyber said that he did not know where the laptop was, not that the FBI no longer has it. The FBI doesn't want to answer any questions about the laptop, because it is embarassing. Not to the FBI, but to the Biden family which the FBI has allowed itself to become the damage control organization for.

As for the CBS article: it’s notable in what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say what they found on their version that was given to them by the lawyer of the computer repair guy, and how it was different than the Rudy/NY Post version, which WaPo had analyzed. The article is written by someone who isn’t actually neutral, but self-identifies as a conservative so one would assume had there been anything on there that was notable, she would have said so.

I don't know what you mean by "notable." By that time the fact that there were selfies taken by Hunter that showed himself smoking crack naked with European prostitutes was already out there, so it would have just been salacious to mention that aspect.

Here is one article that discusses the repair shop owner and how he didn’t recognize the pictures that the NY Post showed as being on the original computer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...unter-biden-laptop-disinfo-guy-who-leaked-it/

I see in the url the word "disinformation." We now know that the laptop was not in any way "Russian disinformation" so I'm not going to wade through the article.

I take it that you yourself do not find it notable that the son of the president is an abuser of crack, a trafficker in women and holds ten percent for The Big Guy, since I've mentioned several times and you've ignored it.

 

[SaintForLife]

 

[MT15]

When Rudy got kompromat from Russians on Hunter, and inserted it into the laptop files, how is that not a Russian operation? It is. So Barb is closer to the truth than you are.

You just believe every lie anyone says who supports your simplistic view of everything (Russia - good; US - bad). The people you are listening to are lying to absolve Russia of everything, the question is why are they doing that? I have no idea, and it’s probably a little different for various ones. There’s a lot of clout-chasing, some grifting, and maybe some ideological loyalty to Russia.

Rudy got those pictures that were put into the laptop files and such from Russian agents who had collected them when Hunter Biden was very much into his addictions and cavorted with Russian prostitutes, probably over in Ukraine. It’s a tale as old as time over there and he was a fool to act that way. Addicts are known to do stupid things, though, and he was certainly no exception.

The salacious pictures and some made-up emails were inserted into the files that the repair shop owner illegally gave to Rudy. That is known fact, you can look it up. The shop owner himself is saying this. Rudy spent months over in Ukraine meeting with Russians looking for dirt on the Bidens prior to the election and that is what he got.

This is the most sensible theory I have seen, and it’s based on what people have seen and what has been reported. So some of the files and emails and such are real, some were added by people working for Trump to try to throw the election, and they got them from the Russians. So, get this, the 2020 Trump campaign colluded with Russians through Rudy to influence our election. Can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

 

[SaintForLife]

Yet another reason why the FBI isn't trusted, but the left still does trust the FBI and wants them involved in online censorship.