If US President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter knew he could get into trouble through a laptop abandoned in a Delaware repair shop in April 2019, he probably would have destroyed the faulty MacBook Pro.
Yet trouble appears to be staring him in the face after The New Times confirmed the existence of the laptop, an issue lesser-known The New York Post had reported extensively and got sanctioned by some social media companies for it.
Hunter has been under investigation by US federal authorities over suspicions of tax evasion, and admitted paying $1 million tax liabilities after the investigation began, The Times reported.
The Post had reported back in October 2020 that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) seized the laptop after the repair shop owner reported it.
It further reported that the hard drive contained a trove of emails, text messages, photos and financial documents between Hunter Biden, his family and business associates, including showing how the younger Biden used his father’s influence to secure lucrative business deals abroad.
One of the deals which the FBI has scrutinised, New York Times reported, is one involving Hunter and Devon Archer, who had served with the first son on the board of Ukraine energy company Burisma.
Archer is currently incarcerated over a separate fraud case and, The Post reported, has cooperated with the FBI’s investigations into Hunter.
Another issue that has refused to go away relates to the discovery of a photo of a credit card believed to belong to former President Barack Obama’s older daughter, Malia on the infamous laptop.
The photo circulating on social media shows an old JP Morgan Visa card with the name “Malia A. Obama” on it next to lines of white powder suspected to be cocaine.
Although “fact-checks” conducted by PolitiFact and Snopes dispelled the supposed discovery as “false”, the platforms also disbelieved the laptop story in its entirety, the existence of which the New York Times has now authenticated.