The FBI subpoenaed a laptop and hard drive allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden in connection with a money laundering investigation, according to a new report.
Documents obtained by Fox News show the subpoena was linked to a money laundering investigation in late 2019, though it is unknown whether the investigation is still open or if it directly involves Hunter Biden.
A New York Post report last week based on the contents of the laptop detailed emails which suggest Hunter Biden may have made an introduction between his father, then- Vice President Joe Biden, and a Ukrainian adviser to Burisma Holdings in 2015. The documents, which Rudy Giuliani gave to the paper, were reportedly recovered from a laptop computer that was dropped off at a repair shop in Delaware in April 2019 but never retrieved.
A senior federal law enforcement official told Fox News that the emails are "authentic."
One of the documents obtained by Fox News detailed the FBI's contact with John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of the repair shop who reported the laptop to authorities.
The document has a "Case ID" section, which is filled in with a hand-written number: 272D-BA-3065729, according to the report, which says multiple officials and the FBI's website confirm that "272" is the bureau's classification for money laundering and "272D" refers to "Money Laundering, Unknown SUA [Specified Unlawful Activity]—White Collar Crime Program," according to FBI documents. One government official told Fox News that "272D" is "transnational or blanket."
"BA" means that the case was opened in the FBI's Baltimore field office, while the documents say that the subpoena was carried out in Wilmington, Del., which is under the jurisdiction of the Baltimore field office.
"The FBI cannot open a case without predication, so they believed there was predication for criminal activity," a government official told Fox News. "This means there was sufficient evidence to believe that there was criminal conduct."
A subpoena sent to Isaac to testify before U.S. District Court in Delaware on Dec. 9, 2019 shows what appears to be serial numbers for a laptop and hard drive taken into possession, according to the report. Based on the date of the subpoena, an official said that the case would have been opened before Isaac’s subpoena.
"If a criminal case was opened and subpoenas were issued, that means there is a high likelihood that both the laptop and hard drive contain fruits of criminal activity," the official said.
The Biden campaign dismissed the allegations on Wednesday.
“The Attorney General of Delaware’s office indicated that the FBI has ‘ongoing investigations regarding the veracity of this entire story.’ And it would be unsurprising for an investigation of a disinformation action involving Rudy Giuliani and those assisting him to involve questions about money laundering, especially since there are other documented inquiries into his dealings,” Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates told Fox News. “In fact, Donald Trump’s own national security adviser warned the president that material furnished by Giuliani should be considered tainted by Russian interference.”
While the Bureau declined to confirm or deny whether an investigation was taking place, officials at the FBI and the Justice Department agree with Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe's comments that the laptop is "not part of a Russian disinformation campaign."
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