President Donald Trump said Monday that the FBI should be investigating Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, over information that was discovered on a laptop purportedly belonging to him.
The president made the remarks in response to a question about whether the law enforcement agency should be investigating the younger Biden following an exclusive report from the New York Post on Oct. 14 that exposed three of Hunter Biden’s alleged emails.
“Yeah, the FBI should be investigating. I don’t know if they are or not, but they should be investigating him,” Trump told reporters at Phoenix International Airport. “And you’ll have to call [FBI Director Christopher] Wray and ask him. But that is—and why did they have those—and did they have it? Did they have that laptop for a long time and not do anything with it?”
The NY Post last week reported that Hunter Biden allegedly introduced his father, who was the vice president at the time, to a top executive at Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company whose board the younger Biden sat on.
Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the Burisma board, appeared to have sent an email thanking Hunter Biden for the “opportunity” to meet his father. The email was dated April 17, 2015.
Biden’s campaign denied the reported meeting.
“Certainly the FBI should be investigating it because, on its face, he’s guilty as can be,“ Trump added. ”There is not even a question about it. On its face, he shouldn’t be allowed to run. So we’ll see how it goes.”
In another alleged email addressed to Burisma board members dated April 13, 2014, Hunter Biden apparently mentions his father several times, using Joe Biden’s influence to negotiate a higher salary for himself. Hunter’s salary at Burisma was reportedly up to $50,000 a month.
In the third alleged email, Pozharskyi asks Hunter Biden for “advice on how you could use your influence” to help the company.
These revelations contradict Joe Biden’s previous claim that he had never spoken to his son about his overseas business dealings.
The emails released by the NY Post all came from a laptop with a Beau Biden Foundation sticker on it. According to a computer repair shop owner, the laptop was sent to his shop with water damage, but no one came to pick it up. Later, the shop owner decided to notify the FBI.
In December last year, the FBI obtained the hard drive of the laptop, while former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani obtained a copy of the drive prior to the FBI’s seizure.
On the same day the emails were disclosed by the media, the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee began an investigation. The chairman of the committee, Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), said that his team had been in contact with the person who provided the emails.
Separately on Monday, Trump said at a campaign rally in Prescott, Arizona, that the content allegedly linked to Hunter Biden is on par with the scandal involving the disgraced former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner in 2017.
“If you read this laptop, I tell you what, this is called the laptop from hell,“ Trump said. ”The only laptop that was almost as good, maybe worse, was the laptop of Anthony Weiner. You remember that? Ding, ding, ding.”
The FBI declined to comment on the matter.
