By Ashley Oliver, Justice Department Reporter. Media: Washington Examiner.
EXCLUSIVE — An FBI official told the House Judiciary Committee in a transcribed interview this week that at least one top agent and likely others who were warning social media companies about a “hack and dump” operation ahead of the 2020 election knew Hunter Biden’s laptop was real.
Laura Dehmlow, head of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, said, according to excerpts of the testimony obtained by the Washington Examiner, that her then-colleague Brad Benavides “certainly” was aware of the laptop’s authenticity.
“Do you know who else at FITF knew that the laptop was real?” the committee asked, according to the transcript excerpts.
Dehmlow replied, “I don’t actually. I would assume both my — yes, I would certainly say that [then-FITF Section Chief] Brad Benavides was aware.”
The committee asked, “What about the individuals on the Russia unit?”
Dehmlow replied, “I would assume the [Russia] unit chief was also aware. I’m pretty certain of that fact.”
Dehmlow was accompanied during the interview by an attorney with the Department of Justice, a common practice when department employees testify before Congress, and the excerpts note that the attorney jumped in to clarify if Dehmlow knew with “certainty” or if she was merely “making deductions.”
“I’m pretty certain they were aware,” Dehmlow replied.
The transcript excerpts were included as part of a letter Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) wrote Thursday to FBI Director Christopher Wray seeking names and other records related to those at the bureau who knew about the laptop and were communicating with social media companies in the weeks ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
The laptop made headlines at the time when the New York Post broke a story on Oct. 14, 2020, implicating then-candidate Joe Biden in his son’s business dealings based on findings on the laptop.
Social media companies, including Twitter and Facebook, suppressed the New York Post’s story, thereby reducing its exposure to their millions of users.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, FITF and other federal government entities were routinely meeting with social media companies and, at one point, warning them repeatedly of a possible “hack and dump” operation, according to a recent and sweeping court ruling out of Louisiana related to government censorship.
Dehmlow also said during her testimony that she recalls, either from attending one such meeting herself or from someone in attendance telling her about it, that “somebody from Twitter essentially asked whether the laptop was real.”
“And one of the FBI folks who was on the call did confirm that, ‘yes, it was,’ before another participant jumped in and said, ‘no further comment,'” Dehmlow said.
In his letter to Wray, Jordan noted that Dehmlow testified that the FBI “immediately deliberated” after the Twitter meeting about how to address any future questions from social media companies about the laptop.
Jordan wrote, “According to Dehmlow, during these internal deliberations the decision was made that FITF would say ‘no comment’ going forward.”
“Put simply, after the FBI conditioned social media companies to believe that the laptop was the product of a hack-and-dump operation, the Bureau stopped its information sharing, allowing social media companies to conclude that the New York Post story was Russian disinformation,” Jordan wrote, a reference to Joe Biden dismissing the story in 2020 as a Russian attempt at election interference.
The revelation that the FBI proactively decided it would not comment on Hunter Biden’s laptop comes after the FBI subpoenaed and gained possession of it by December 2019 amid its investigation of the younger Biden, as detailed in the Louisiana court ruling.
The FBI maintains that it does not comment on ongoing investigations, a policy that would align with its decision to decline to comment on direct questions from social media companies about the laptop’s authenticity in 2020.
Dehmlow’s testimony corroborates that of IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapely, who testified to the House Ways and Means Committee in May that the FBI was aware of the laptop’s authenticity.
Shapely told the committee, “The FBI became aware that a repair shop had a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden and that the laptop might contain evidence of a crime” in October 2019.
He said “the FBI verified its authenticity in November of 2019 by matching the device number against Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud ID.”
The FBI declined to comment on the matter.
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