The Justice Department, FBI, and IRS all knew the infamous Hunter Biden laptop "was real" immediately after it came to light and prosecutors told investigators not to ask questions about Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election, according to two whistleblowers.
IRS employees Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, both who previously testified before Congress, spoke to investigative reporter Catherine Herridge in their first interview since Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to federal tax charges to avoid facing another criminal trial months after the being convicted in a separate gun case.
The infamous "laptop from hell" was originally abandoned by first son Hunter Biden at a Delaware computer repair shop before being retrieved and authenticated by the FBI.
In October 2020, the New York Post first reported the abandoned laptop included of influence-peddling, drug use, and other lurid activity.
Government officials, social media companies, and the mainstream media refused to acknowledge the authenticity of the laptop, instead saying it was part of a Russian disinformation effort.
In July 2023, the FBI's section chief of the Foreign Influence Task Force testified before a House panel that the bureau knew the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden in the run-up to the 2020 election.
Shapley and Ziegler told Herridge federal investigators faced "a lot of overt investigative steps that we were not allowed to take because we had an upcoming election."
They also told the reporter:
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