CLAIM: Joe Biden claimed the “laptop from hell” with Hunter Biden’s emails is “Russian disinformation.”
VERDICT: FALSE. There is no evidence that the laptop is Russian disinformation, and the emails have been corroborated.
President Donald Trump raised the “laptop from hell” at Thursday’s presidential debate. He was referring to an abandoned laptop that contained emails suggesting that Joe Biden had, in fact, met with Hunter Biden’s foreign business partners, contrary to what the former vice president has claimed.
The emails also suggested that the Biden family had pursued a business venture with a Chinese company — a claim corroborated before the debate by former partner Tony Bobulinski.
Democrats and journalists have tried to claim, without evidence, that the emails could be “Russian disinformation.”
Biden echoed that claim, citing a letter by over 50 former intelligence officials. But as Breitbart News noted earlier this week, those officials admitted they had no actual evidence of “Russian disinformation,” and they allowed that the emails might in fact be “genuine.”
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said earlier this week that the laptop is not Russian disinformation. And Fox News reported: “The FBI and Justice Department concur with DNI Ratcliffe that the laptop is not part of a Russian disinformation campaign.”
Trump mocked Biden’s response as a return to the Democrats’ “Russia, Russia, Russia” refrain.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.