Hunter Biden Used Burner Phone and Data Recovery Apps: Former US Secret Service Agent

Hunter Biden Used Burner Phone and Data Recovery Apps: Former US Secret Service Agent
Hunter Biden walks to Marine One on the Ellipse outside the White House in Washington on May 22, 2021. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Frank Fang
Updated:
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Data recovered from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop have shown that the president’s son reportedly used burner phone apps extensively from 2014 to 2018, and a data recovery app to extract data from iPhones owned by Hallie Biden, the widow of his late brother Beau.

The discovery was made by Konstantinos “Gus” Dimitrelos, retired U.S. secret service agent and current chief executive officer of U.S.-based firm Cyber Forensics, after examing a copy of the laptop’s hard drive provided by the Washington Examiner.
According to his report, one of his key findings was a CSV file, created on Jan. 21, 2019, containing Hunter Biden’s transaction records in the Apple app store.

“The file contained over 2,000 purchases by Robert Hunter Biden and dozens of purchases of burner phone apps which are used to generate alternate phone numbers capable of making calls and texting from a primary mobile device such as an iPhone or iPad,” the report says.

Dimitrelos listed details of 39 purchase transactions in his report, their invoices dating from 2014 to 2018, showing Hunter Biden make multiple purchases with three burner phone apps—Phoner, textPlus, and WePhone. The president’s son bought items including “Unlimited Mexico Calls,” “Unlimited Calling US & Canada,” and “Second Phone Number Yearly.”

It is unknown why Hunter Biden needed these apps, which offer more privacy protection. And neither is it clear whether and to what extent he used these different phone numbers to conduct foreign business dealings.

Hunter Biden, who is currently under federal investigation for tax affairs, has been under scrutiny for his overseas business dealings in countries including Ukraine, Russia, and China, particularly during the time when Joe Biden was vice president under the Obama administration.

“In addition to buying burner phone apps, there is evidence on the MacBook Pro hard drive that Phoner was used to record a call and save the audio file titled Recording.mp3,” the report says. The audio file, which lasted 8 minutes and 16 seconds, involved a conversation between Hunter Biden and a woman he called Hallie.

On May 6, 2017, Hunter Biden purchased Dr.Fone, a software that allows its users to recover deleted data and back up data on their cellphones, as well as transfer certain files such as photos and contacts between phones and computers. According to the report, the software was installed on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop.

Hunter Biden “manually connected iPhones belonging to Hallie,” the report says, and he “extracted” information including messages, call logs, photographs, notes, and over 120 voicemails.

In 2017, Hunter Biden began dating Hallie Biden, two years after Beau Biden died from brain cancer. The two eventually split up and the president’s son re-married in 2019.

Dimitrelos ended his report by authenticating the laptop.

“Based on my analysis and overwhelming data confirmed the Hunter Biden MacBook Pro was not hacked and the data contained on the hard drive is authentic,” he wrote. “Based on the data I examined there was no manipulation of any photographs, emails, documents, or other user activities.”

In October 2020, The New York Post broke the Hunter Biden’s laptop story. The Washington Post and the New York Times didn’t authenticate the laptop until March 2022.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Hunter Biden’s attorney Chris Clark for comment.

Recently, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, sent letters to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and 13 banks, demanding financial records and documents in connections to Hunter Biden, his uncle James Biden, and business associates Eric Schwerin and Devon Archer, among others.

“We are investigating the domestic and international business dealings of President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and other Biden associates and family members to determine whether these activities compromise U.S. national security and President Biden’s ability to lead with impartiality,” Comer wrote in the letters.

Comer’s letters cited a CBS News report that more than 150 financial transactions tied to Hunter Biden or James Biden “were flagged by U.S. banks” as concerning.

“The sheer number of flagged transactions in this case is highly unusual and may be indicative of serious criminal activity or a national security threat,” Comer said in the letter (pdf) to Yellen.
The 13 banks include Morgan Stanley, Citi Bank, and Bank of America—as well as the state-owned Bank of China (pdf).

Comer wanted the Yellen and the banks to produce the documents and information before June 8.

The documents sought by Comer could lay the groundwork for a potential probe by House Republicans if they win control of the House after the midterm elections. 
Frank Fang
Frank Fang
journalist
Frank Fang is a Taiwan-based journalist. He covers U.S., China, and Taiwan news. He holds a master's degree in materials science from Tsinghua University in Taiwan.
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