Sen. Johnson Slams NY Times, Former Intel Experts Over Hunter Biden Laptop: “The FBI Knew”

People should be “outraged” at the New York Times for only just confirming the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop, Sen. Ron Johnson said Sunday, as he demanded apologies from the 51 former US intelligence experts who cast doubt on The Post’s reporting on the device.

“I am just amazed that the New York Times just now came to the conclusion that the Hunter Biden laptop was genuine,” Johnson, of Wisconsin, told ​host John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM’s “The Cats Roundtable.”

“Where have they been? That was pretty obvious within a week or two of the New York Post’s stories​.”

The senator was referring to The Post’s exclusive reports in October 2020 on the first son’s foreign business dealings and his connection to Ukrainian energy firm Burisma while his father, Joe Biden, was vice president.

“T​​he FBI had to know that. They wouldn’t tell us when we were offered the laptop. I couldn’t take it because I had to do my due diligence. The FBI knew,” Johnson said in the interview that aired Sunday.

“We reached out to the FBI. They wouldn’t tell us it was genuine. They should have. But they didn’t. People should be outraged,” he said.

The laptop, left at a Delaware computer repair shop by Hunter Biden, contained a trove of emails detailing his business relationships in Ukraine and China, which implicated his father. 

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for then-President Donald Trump, obtained the laptop and turned it over to The Post, which authenticated its contents by interviewing the computer shop owner and Biden cronies whose emails were found on the hard drive.

Hunter Biden is facing a sprawling federal probe into his tax filings and business dealings, the New York Times reported last week.

Johnson called on the Gray Lady to apologize, as well as the 51 intelligence experts who cast doubt on the laptop as Russian disinformation in a letter released just days after The Post’s bombshell exclusives.​

“The New York Times is finally, quietly, covering its tracks. … Where are all the other apologies? Where is the apology from the 5[1] intelligence … operatives?” Johnson said on Catsimatidis’ show.

“What they really said was that the laptop had all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation. I had absolutely no information whatsoever, no evidence that this was Russian disinformation. … So, you have all these intelligence operatives confirming … a false story,” Johnson said.

“It was obvious very early on that the Hunter Biden laptop was genuine,” he continued. “They never should have tainted the process with that letter, but they did. Are they going to apologize for it? I’m not holding my breath.”

Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, investigated Hunter Biden’s $50,000-a-month job with Burisma and Ukraine.

The report, issued in December 2020 by Johnson’s panel and the Senate Finance Committee, said the Obama administration ignored “glaring warning signs” when Hunter Biden joined the Burisma board.

It also concluded that younger Biden’s job “was problematic and did interfere in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine.”

Since the Times has acknowledged the laptop exists, a growing number of Republicans around the country are demanding a new investigation into the president’s embattled son.

The Wisconsin Republican also blasted the media, saying ignoring The Post’s Hunter Biden story while playing up claims that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia had serious implications on the 2020 presidential election.

“My main point is that the mainstream media, their bias, their corruption, their complicity in the Russian collusion hoax, interfered with our elections. Had a far greater impact on our elections than anything Russia or China ever could hope to accomplish. But they’re never held accountable because they have to hold themselves accountable, and they are not going to do that,” he said.

Johnson also compared Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Russian state media officials who are suppressing information about the war in Ukraine.

“These are big-tech billionaires. You go to Ukraine and the complaint is always about the media oligarchs are corrupting the political process in Eastern European countries. We have our own media oligarchs. We just called them big-tech billionaires,” Johnson said.

“They are far more powerful than any media oligarchs in Russia or in Eastern Europe. Look at the suppression. The censorship. The bias. We’ve got big-tech billionaires. And they are dramatically impacting and interfering in our politics,” he continued.

Both Twitter and Facebook began censoring The Post’s exposés on Hunter Biden shortly after they were published.

Johnson also accused Google of manipulating search terms around the election to push millions of voters to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, but claimed the mainstream media protects Big Tech.

“But the mainstream media covers it up. They won’t allow this information to be revealed to the American public.  They have unbelievable power. And they are using that power,” he said.

“That’s just the truth. They’re not going to let the truth out.”