FBI director Christopher Wray refused to say Thursday whether the release of information from Hunter Biden’s laptop was part of a "disinformation" campaign.
No evidence has emerged to support the claim—initially advanced by Democrats and former intelligence officials—that the release of documents found on Hunter Biden's laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign to smear President Biden. But when pressed on this question during a House Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday, Wray repeatedly dodged, citing an ongoing Justice Department investigation.
"I want to be careful about, there is an ongoing investigation that is relevant to that, so I have to be careful of what I can share on that here." Wray said.
The question is at the center of a bitter partisan debate over the Biden family’s foreign business dealings. Emails from the laptop reveal details of Biden’s work in Ukraine, China, and elsewhere. Documents from the laptop suggest President Joe Biden had knowledge of his son’s business affairs, contradicting his claims to the contrary.
The owner of a computer repair shop in Delaware has said that Biden dropped off his laptop for repairs in April 2019 but never came back to retrieve it. The shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, has said he provided a copy of the Biden hard drive to the FBI and later to journalists.
In December 2020, Hunter Biden revealed that he was under Justice Department investigation for his taxes. It was later reported that the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware opened an investigation of Biden in 2018 and was probing his foreign business dealings.