I don't know whether this issue is worth spending time on, because anybody who doesn't know by now how the Trump machine has been lying and making up stuff to try to win the election isn't going to care about evidence, but I have a compulsion for truth.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hunter-biden-laptop-new-york-post-story/
By Bo Erickson, Stefan Becket
Updated on: October 16, 2020 / 4:45 PM
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But the owner of the computer store, John Paul MacIsaac, was unable and unwilling to answer key questions about how the laptop supposedly arrived in his store, and eventually, how the data was shared with Giuliani. CBS News interviewed MacIsaac for almost two hours on Wednesday and throughout the interview he contradicted himself about his motivations, raising questions about the truthfulness of one of the central figures in the story.
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MacIsaac told CBS News that he first turned over the hard drive to the FBI last December during the president's impeachment, and provided a copy of its contents to Costello after becoming frustrated by the Senate trial in January. MacIsaac refused to
[MacIsaac told CBS News that he first turned over the hard drive to the FBI last December during the president's impeachment, and provided a copy of its contents to Costello after becoming frustrated by the Senate trial in January. MacIsaac refused to
[If Macisaac was reading the documents on the laptop, it doesn't show him to be an ethical person. I wouldn't want my computer worked on by him.]
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Giuliani apparently held the information for months and released it less than three weeks before the election. Giuliani has long been involved in efforts by the president and his allies to highlight Hunter Biden's work overseas to damage Joe Biden and boost Mr. Trump's reelection campaign, and in 2019 met with a Ukrainian lawmaker who has been deemed an "active Russian agent" by the U.S. government.
In December 2019, National Security Advisor chief Robert O'Brien conveyed concerns to Mr. Trump that Giuliani was being targeted by a Russian disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting Biden, current and former advisors in the Trump administration told CBS News' Paula Reid. Giuliani's meeting with the Ukrainian lawmaker — Andriy Derkach — was one of the reasons for those concerns.
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Republicans and the president's allies allege Biden pushed in 2016 for the ouster of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin to shield Burisma and, by implication, Hunter Biden from an anti-corruption investigation.
But both the U.S. and the European Union had called for Shokin's ouster over his failure to prosecute officials for corruption, and an investigation into Burisma was at that point dormant. Biden eventually threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid from Ukraine unless Shokin was fired, and the country's parliament voted to remove him in 2016.
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The owner of the repair store's political motivations came to light in the interview with CBS News and a few other reporters, raising even more questions about the veracity of how this supposed laptop became public.
MacIsaac, the owner, said several times how he felt Mr. Trump was treated unfairly during his impeachment trial and suggested if the alleged documents are true, the "sham" impeachment was reason to release them. He also repeatedly mentioned his girlfriend left him after he voted for Trump in 2016.
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Standing in his shop on Wednesday, MacIsaac admitted he was unable to confirm it was actually Hunter Biden who dropped off the laptop because he is "legally blind" and only realized it was the former vice president's son when Hunter stated his name for the point of contact.
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MacIsaac also would not reveal when he first looked through the data, and refused to provide key details about his handling of the material. Asked by CBS News if he actually saw the email purportedly from Pozharskyi, he repeatedly said "no comment" before saying he "believed" he had. MacIsaac refused to answer in any detail whether or why he would have searched through the laptop to find a four-year-old email, which seemingly appears to be an innocuous message about arranging a meeting for coffee.
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In August, an assessment by the U.S. intelligence community singled out the Ukrainian parliamentarian, Andriy Derkach, for "spreading claims about corruption — including through publicizing leaked phone calls — to undermine former Vice President Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party."
The Treasury Department leveled sanctions against Derkach in September, describing him as an "active Russian agent" who has done the Kremlin's bidding for more than a decade. Derkach and Giuliani met in Ukraine last December at the height of the impeachment saga, as Giuliani worked to uncover damaging information about Hunter Biden.
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