Sen. Ron Johnson on Hunter Biden’s Laptop Offer
Weeks before the explosive report about Hunter Biden’s questionable laptop, Sen. Ron Johnson shared that his team was offered the device, but he couldn’t accept it for several reasons. He revealed this on the recent episode of “Pod Force One.”
Johnson (R-Louisiana) told The Post’s Miranda Devine, “You got what was supposed to be given to us, and we didn’t receive it.”
He noted, “That certainly sounded suspicious. That means you need to be careful.”
Johnson felt it necessary to properly investigate the situation, saying, “We had to vet it properly. We had to do our due diligence. It might be stolen property. I had no idea. We had to follow the integrity rules.”
The laptop was reportedly abandoned in a Delaware repair shop back in 2019.
The shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, who is legally blind, believes that his son may have dropped it but isn’t entirely sure.
A copy of the laptop’s hard drive was acquired, which the Post later used to publish a significant story in October 2020. This article included an email indicating Hunter’s introduction of Burisma adviser Vadim Pozharskiy to his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden.
This article came just weeks before the presidential election and faced censorship from platforms like Facebook and Twitter, now called X, which temporarily blocked access to the Post’s account.
Some 51 current and former intelligence officials expressed skepticism about the authenticity of the story. However, other news outlets eventually referenced the laptop in their reporting, and it was also used in Hunter’s trial regarding firearm possession while under the influence of illegal drugs.
Johnson elaborated that the FBI had retrieved Hunter Biden’s laptop in December 2019 and confirmed its authenticity. Around the time of the offer to Johnson’s team, he described the FBI’s approach as an “ambush.” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) received a similar briefing.
Johnson recalled an August 2020 meeting and said, “You have to be careful about what you hear from Russia and Ukraine and the spread of disinformation.”
Reflecting on the briefing, he thought they might have indicated there could be false information regarding the president’s son.
He expressed his frustration during the news conference, stating that the FBI “didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t know.” He added, “I was curious about who let the agent do that.” When asked if he viewed it as an “ambush,” he affirmed, “Yes, it definitely was. It was meant to throw us off course.”
The senator’s team received their copy of the laptop “around the end of September” and reached out to the FBI, which had already secured it and had directed that it be “circumvented” for several weeks.
As the chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Johnson mentioned that he hadn’t originally aimed to investigate but rather intended to tackle issues like Obamacare and national debt.
He briefly served as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee in 2015, quickly becoming a key figure in Senate investigations.
“When the Hillary Clinton email scandal broke, it was my responsibility not only to investigate corruption within the government but specifically regarding federal records and a law she likely violated called the Federal Records Act,” he explained. “So my career as an investigator began.”
