Skip to main content

Hunter Biden's Laptop, or is It?!

Hunter Biden’s laptop or is it!? A lesson in provenance. Opinion

We know nothing about the hot-button issues of the day! The example of the century:

What do we know?

  • We know that someone dropped off a laptop at a repair shop, maybe.
  • We know it eventually passed the laptop on to Rudy Giuliani, maybe.
  • WE know that Giuliani eventually surrendered it to the FBI, maybe.
  • We know the FBI possibly tried to prevent it from being made public, maybe.

Does anyone see the problem here? Anyone? Anyone at all?

We don’t know diddly squat!

Why? Well, provenance!

Stage 1

First, we do not know whether Hunter Biden owned the particular laptop in question or if he did, whether he dropped it off as assumed. We do not even know if a laptop was even dropped off at that location at all. If not, where did it come from and who created its content?

Stage 2

Even if a laptop was delivered to that location, and the laptop did belong to Hunter Biden, and it was indeed he who delivered it, we have no accounting of what was done to or who may have handled it between the time it was delivered and the next phase of its existence.

Stage 3

If Hunter Biden did drop off a laptop, was it this laptop? If this is Hunter Biden’s laptop, dropped off by Hunter Biden, was it modified by someone before it was given to Giuliani? How many people had their hands on it? Has the hard drive been switched, has deep fake content replaced the previous content, or been added to existing content? How many people added, exchanged, deleted or otherwise altered the content before it was turned over to the absolutely trustworthy Mr. Giuliani?

And after it was placed in the hands of the new curator, how many people had their hands on it, and how many of them modified it, and is it even the possible laptop of the person who possibly delivered it to the computer shop to start with, and if so, who in the new curation crowd could have modified, adjusted, changed, altered, recreated, or otherwise screwed around with it?

I am sure by now you get the point.

Stage 4

Before the laptop, whoever's laptop it was, was ever handed over to the actual authorities, there were hundreds, possibly thousands of opportunities for tampering with it or replacing it, or replacing parts of it!

I do not believe there is a court in the land that would not throw out any case based on evidence gleaned from any such device!

The laptop and the election

Now, if the shoe had been on the proverbial other foot, if Donald Jr. or the Kushners had possibly dropped off a laptop showing Trump junior as a coke head, or Jared selling national secrets to The Saudi’s, and that laptop had the same sort of provenance as the one in the tale above, would Republican operatives have wanted it posted on social media days before the last presidential election?

Conclusion:

Provenance, knowing the origin and the chain of ownership must be clear with any important documents or evidence. If it is not, the trustworthiness is in doubt. This is a good lesson for all of us, and particularly the media and social media pundits. It can be applied to many of today’s hot-button issues, including the classified document issue, which now encompasses 3 high ranking individuals from different parties and persuasions. Go forth and apply it!

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Problems for Federalism if States Can't Determine Eligibility

If the court rules that individual states can not determine eligibility the door would be open to all third parties for ballot access challenges. The court would have to set up or help to establish federal rules to determine eligibility requirements or face a flood of challenges for all 50 states. That seems to be a nail in the coffin of Federalism. A Trump victory in SCOTUS would set up a 50 state rush of indie candidates who would take eligibility questions to the high court. To avoid that they would have to legislate from the bench or convince Congress to legislate an end to Federalism!
Read more

It's All Biden's Fault!

  There was a period of reverse immigration! That is, more people headed south than north, between 2008 and 2016. The Republicans began running on border security in spite of this fact. What do you think happened? The “Quick, let's get in before the opportunity closes!” idea kicked in! We saw a resurgence of immigration not seen in decades! It goes like this: Before Trump: reverse immigration.  Trump lies and threats: massive migration.  Trump regulations: Four years of border backup.  I t's Biden's fault  Today: Biden resets after ending Trump regulation: System working legally and properly with backup gone and new people processed by sending those with no credible claim home and the 1 to 2 percent of credible claims through!  Republicans: But, but, but, where's Hunter? Inflation We all agree that too much money chasing too few goods caused inflation, so what is the solution? Raising interest is not it! Producing more goods is! Why do we have a shortage o...
Read more

Preliminary findings after reading the Durham report

  After reading the report: 1. Did not exonerate Trump. 1. Did not exonerate Trump. 2. Made no suggestion for criminal charges beyond the ones made in an earlier iteration and noted below. 3. Durham found no reason for opening a full investigation into Trump/Russian collaboration at that time. 4. Suggested that the FBI should have opened a preliminary investigation. The implication being that a preliminary investigation would have led to a full investigation. 5. Durham said that it was possible that the FBI needed to put some reforms in place. In addition, the investigation as a whole did see an earlier iteration that made 3 criminal charges: One plead guilty, the 2 others were tried and acquitted. I am awaiting the Durham appearance before congress to do a full report. I have an inescapable sense that there is something else going on here. Similarities between this report and the Müller report like something is being left out of the story by both. Somewhere in my reading, I ran ac...
Read more