Former Rep. Denver Riggleman, who advised the House’s disbanded Jan. 6 select committee and is working with Hunter Biden’s legal team, claimed the contents on Mr. Biden’s laptop are not verified, despite numerous news organizations and the FBI validating it.
Mr. Riggleman, who served one congressional term as a Virginia Republican, wrote on his Twitter account Wednesday why he is assisting Hunter Biden’s attorneys with data issues.
“Truth matters. When I took this job, I wasn’t pro-Hunter or anti-Hunter. I am pro-data and facts,” Mr. Riggleman tweeted along with a link to a CBS News story about his work for the Biden legal team. “Forensics make clear that considerable information linked to Hunter Biden is questionable.”
A Twitter user replied to Mr. Riggleman that the laptop’s contents had already been verified.
“No, they haven’t. What ’data’ is being used? A laptop and data saying it’s a laptop are two different things. NY Post is not a viable source,” he tweeted back to the user.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Illinois Republican, replied to Mr. Riggleman, “If ANYONE has altered Hunter’s information or tried to plant anything, Denver will find it. He’s the best there is.”
Mr. Kinzinger was one of two GOP lawmakers, the other being former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, appointed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who served on the Jan. 6 committee last Congress when the Democrats controlled the lower chamber.
The contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop were first reported by the New York Post in mid-October 2020, just weeks before the presidential election between President Donald Trump and Hunter’s father, Joe Biden.
Twitter censored the Post’s reporting, referencing its “hacked materials” policy. Still, The New York Times, The Washington Post and CBS News have since verified the contents of the younger Biden’s laptop.
Jack Dorsey, who was Twitter’s CEO when the censorship happened, admitted during a congressional hearing on misinformation and social media in March 2021 that blocking the Post’s report was a “total mistake.”
Yoel Roth, who was Twitter’s head of trust and safety until he quit last November following Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover, also said in an interview with CNN last year that the big tech company erred in not letting people share the story.
Fifty-one former intelligence officials created doubt about the authenticity of the laptop when they claimed in a public letter just before the 2020 election that it had “earmarks” of Russian disinformation.
The letter was allegedly organized by Biden Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The letter’s claims were never walked back after new information about the laptop surfaced in 2022, and the signatories never retracted the statement.
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, appeared to confirm the legitimacy of the laptop data in February when he wrote a letter to the Justice Department requesting an investigation into those who accessed his client’s “personal computer data,” including Delaware computer repairman John Mac Isaac.
“Mr. Mac Isaac has admitted to gaining access to our client’s personal computer data without Mr. Biden’s consent. Mr. Mac Isaac has admitted to copying that data without Mr. Biden’s consent, and Mr. Mac Isaac has admitted to distributing copies of that data to the political enemies of Mr. Biden’s father, without Mr. Biden’s consent,” Mr. Lowell wrote.
“These unlawful actions caused the widespread publication, manipulation and exploitation of Mr. Biden’s most personal information.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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