More trouble for Joe Biden as Ukrainian lawmaker claims second laptop belonging to Hunter's business contacts in the country has been seized by law enforcement
A Ukrainian lawmaker has claimed a second laptop belonging to Hunter Biden's business contacts in the country has been seized by law enforcement there.
Andrii Derkach posted to Facebook on Friday to say there is a 'second laptop' involving evidence of corruption and connected to the Bidens, The Daily Beast reports.
Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, has said foreign sources did not provide the Hunter Biden emails first reported last week. He says a laptop containing the correspondence and intimate photos was simply abandoned in a Delaware repair shop and the shop owner reached out to Giuliani's lawyer.
Derkach is one of Giuliani's principal contacts and was mentioned in an August intelligence assessment that described a concerted Russian effort to disparage Biden. A Treasury Department sanction announcement from last month characterized Derkach as an 'active Russian agent for over a decade.'
Now he claims to know of a second laptop, used by 'two representatives for the interests of [Burisma founder Mykola] Zlochevsky.' Hunter served on the board of directors at Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
In the post Derkach says that laptop 'was given to Ukrainian law enforcement' and that Burisma representatives were now serving as 'witnesses in criminal proceedings.'
Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach has claimed a second laptop belonging to Hunter Biden's business contacts in the country has been seized by law enforcement there
Derkach says the workers are 'ready to tell' about international corruption involving the Bidens. He warns: 'But most importantly! These are not the last witnesses or the last laptop'. Joe Biden is pictured Sunday in Durham, North Carolina
The Ukrainian parliamentarian said: 'The facts that confirm international corruption are stored on the second laptop.
'This laptop was handed over to Ukrainian law enforcement officers, and the "workers" themselves are now witnesses in criminal proceedings.'
Derkach says the workers are 'ready to tell' about international corruption involving the Bidens. He warns: 'But most importantly! These are not the last witnesses or the last laptop.'
Giuliani has not been shy about discussing his foreign contacts, including with Derkach. In December, Derkach posted on his Facebook page photos of him and Giuliani meeting in Kyiv.
The New York Post published a photograph, said to be found on an abandoned laptop, showing Hunter with a crack pipe in his mouth, left. A series of compromising pictures of Democratic candidate Joe Biden's son Hunter, 50, (above) have been released just weeks ahead of the US election on November 3
Derkach in recent months has leaked recordings of calls Biden had as vice president with Ukraine's then-leader, audio the Biden campaign contends is heavily edited.
Despite his own administration's warnings on Derkach, Trump has promoted those recordings on Twitter.
Last week, the New York Post published emails and photographs that the outlet claimed were contained on a laptop owned by Hunter Biden, which he apparently never collected from the repair store.
The hard drive was retrieved by a third-party from the shop owner in January and then sent to Giuliani. Giuliani seemingly then sat on the information for months, before releasing it to the Post just weeks before the election.
The messages suggested that Hunter Biden had arranged for a top executive at Burisma to meet his father in person, when he was vice-president and in charge of US policy with Ukraine.
Biden's campaign and a lawyer for Hunter Biden said they had no record of such a meeting taking place. They have not addressed the authenticity of the emails.
Giuliani has not been shy about discussing his foreign contacts, including with Derkach
Derkach posted to Facebook on Friday to say there is a 'second laptop' involving evidence of corruption and connected to the Bidens, The Daily Beast reports
In the emails published by the Post, Hunter Biden is shown pursuing a lucrative deal involving China's largest private energy company, saying in one message that the proposed deal would be 'interesting for me and my family', before discussing remuneration packages.
The FBI is reportedly conducting an investigation into whether the allegations are part of a Russian disinformation campaign against the Biden campaign, though the agency has refused to speak publicly on the matter.
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who was recently arrested for federal money-laundering and fraud, said Sunday everything that has come to light from Hunter Biden's hard drive is true.
He said Hunter's lawyer tried to email the repair shop to get the laptop back and has since then contacted Bannon and his team to retrieve the sensitive hard drive.
Steve Bannon said everything found on Hunter Biden's lap top is true as he claims: 'Absolutely the meetings happened. This is not off of some Russia intelligence operation. That emails correct, the meanings correct and, by the way, that 10 per cent of the equity is Joe Biden's'
Independent Mac shop owner John Paul MacIsaac, 44, of Wilmington, Delaware, says he is person who turned over Hunter Biden's emails to the FBI and Giuliani. Steve Bannon said Hunter Biden's lawyer tried desperately to get the hard drive back after it was left at the lap top repair shop
Trump weighed in on the ordeal, dubbing Joe Biden with a new nickname: '10% Joe'
'Hunter Biden's lawyer has come to us both with phone calls and with emails saying, 'hey, I've got to get the hard drive back',' Bannon said.
'This is not some Russian intelligence operation; they admit it's their hard drive,' he continued in proving the validity of the information found on the laptop. 'We have the emails from the lawyer, if we need to release them, we'll release them.'
Trump weighed in on Hunter's emails on Twitter Sunday, and gave his Democratic rival a new nickname: '10% Joe.'
'Hunter Biden's laptop is a disaster for the entire Biden family, but especially for his father, Joe. It is now a proven fact, and cannot be denied, that all of that info is the REAL DEAL,' Trump tweeted. 'That makes it impossible for '50%, or 10%' Joe, to ever assume the office of the President!'
Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden stands next to his granddaughter Finnegan, Hunter Biden's daughter, after landing at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Sunday
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