October 8, 2024

Computer repairman who gave feds Hunter Biden’s laptop says he was victim of intimidation campaign

Computer repairman who gave feds Hunter Biden’s laptop says he was victim of intimidation campaign

The Delaware computer repair shop owner who alerted feds of incriminating emails, text messages, photos and financial documents on Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020 says he’s since lost his store and now faces bankruptcy, after being victimized in an intimidation campaign once his findings went public.

‘I was getting a lot of death threats,’ John Paul Mac Isaac, owner of The Mac Shop in Wilmington, told The New York Post Saturday. 

The paper broke the story of the contents of the laptop in October 2020, which came into Mac Isaac’s possession after an ‘inebriated’ Biden brought it in for repairs in April 2019 and never picked it back up, the 45-year-old store owner says.  

Files found in Biden’s personal computer included emails showing shady business dealings by the current US president’s son with foreign officials, and texts that showed him repeatedly using the ‘N-word’ and accidentally overpaying a prostitute $25,000 from an account linked to his dad.

It also uncovered a 2015 effort by Biden to set up a meeting between Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser at a Ukrainian energy firm, and then-vice President Joe Biden, and other instances of Biden looking to cash in on his family connections.

After the Post broke the story of the laptop’s contents, Mac said the in-person threats got so bad, that he had to enlist local police to provide him with round-the-clock protection.

‘There were multiple situations where people came in and you could tell they were not there to have a computer fixed,’ Mac Isaac said.

‘If there were not other people in the shop, I don’t know what would have happened,’ he told The Post. ‘I was having vegetables, eggs, dog s–t thrown at the shop every morning.

‘I had to have a Wilmington trooper parked in front of my shop all the time,’ he revealed to the paper.

Computer repairman who gave feds Hunter Biden’s laptop says he was victim of intimidation campaign

Scottish-American John Paul Mac Isaac, owner of The Mac Shop in Wilmington, Delaware, says he received death threats after handing over a laptop left by an ‘inebriated’ Hunter Biden in his store to feds in April 2019, spurring him to flee the state and lose his business

The store, founded by Mac Isaac in 2010, went under after reports of incriminating content on the laptop surfaced in October 2020 forced the computer repairman to flee the state and collect unemployment in Colorado - payments he did not receive for over a year

The store, founded by Mac Isaac in 2010, went under after reports of incriminating content on the laptop surfaced in October 2020 forced the computer repairman to flee the state and collect unemployment in Colorado – payments he did not receive for over a year

Eventually, after weeks of being approached and harassed by multiple mysterious figures, Mac Isaac was forced to close down the shop and flee the state in November 2020. 

He subsequently spent nearly a year holed up in Colorado with his family, during which time he lost his decade-old business.

In December 2020, Mac Issac applied for unemployment, and said he was met with pushback from government officials that left him unable to get his entitled benefits. 

‘I would open up a case, wouldn’t hear anything, then open another case, then open another case – and then I was told to stop opening up cases,’ Mac Isaac said.  

‘And they would keep closing these cases.’

As bills piled up, Mac Isaac, unable to obtain his benefits, was forced to dip into his 401K, he told the outlet in an interview Saturday.  

A year later, after still not receiving any cash, the computer whiz sent a strongly worded letter to Delaware State Senator Chris Coons, asking the politician if the state’s refusal to pay him out was the result of a politically motivated attack, possibly from the federal level.

‘I would hate to think that I was singled out in a politically motivated attack. If a state agency was weaponized to punish a perceived political enemy, the country has a right to know,’ he told Democrat Coons.

Mac Isaac says he received his backlogged benefits soon after, but told The Post that the sum he received still ended up short several thousand dollars.

Files found in Biden's personal computer included emails showing shady business dealings by Viden, with foreign officials, and texts that showed him using the 'N-word' and accidentally overpaying a prostitute $25,000 from an account linked to his dad

Files found in Biden’s personal computer included emails showing shady business dealings by Viden, with foreign officials, and texts that showed him using the ‘N-word’ and accidentally overpaying a prostitute $25,000 from an account linked to his dad

Three months prior, in September 2021, Mac Isaac also received what he perceived as threats from the IRS, demanding a supposedly overdue $57 from a 2016 tax return. 

‘I got an invoice on September 6, 2021, for a tax return in 2016. I took it to an accountant friend of mine who said they don’t go back that far unless they’re looking for something,’ Mac Isaac said. He told the Post that he sent the agency the $57 almost immediately.

‘We have all seen how weaponized the IRS has become over the last decade, so I wasn’t about to pick a fight,’ he said.

Speaking to The Post, Mac Isaac refused to accuse the Biden family directly, but conceded that he the actions by the government agencies felt retaliatory.

‘I think it looks rather fishy,’ Mac Isaac, a Scottish-American who often dons a green Balmoral cap, said. 

‘I have been punished for my actions on so many levels both to hurt me personally and to set an example for anyone else that might try to blow the wrong whistle.’

Mac Isaac then revealed that the situation worsened after he sued Twitter in December 2020, after the social media had censored initial reports concerning the contents of the laptop, deeming them to be misinformation.

Facebook also allegedly suppressed posts that shared reports of Mac Isaac’s findings.

The defamation suit filed in federal court demanded Twitter execs fork of half a billion dollars for falsely deeming the reports to be inaccurate – consequently harming the computer fixer’s reputation – and was ultimately dismissed by a Florida judge with prejudice six months later.  

John Paul Mac Isaac, pictured here in a 2016 Facebook photo, only received his backlogged benefits after writing to his state senator and suggested that he may have been the victim of a politically motivated attack by the federal government

John Paul Mac Isaac, pictured here in a 2016 Facebook photo, only received his backlogged benefits after writing to his state senator and suggested that he may have been the victim of a politically motivated attack by the federal government

As part of the court’s ruling, Mac Isaac was ordered to pay the Twitter’s legal bills for the proceedings, which amounted to an astronomical $175,000.

Mac Isaac told The Post that he does not believe he will be able to accumulate such a sum, and that ‘bankruptcy looks like my only option.’  

He also told the paper that even after social media began allowing reports regarding the laptop – which have all been deemed authentic – he remained censored on other big tech platforms, including Facebook and YouTube.

Mac Isaac accused YouTube of ‘shadow-banning’ his content covering his findings, meaning they allowed the computer man’s videos to remain on the site, but effectively hid them from users by not including the videos in their normal algorithms.Mac Isaac,

Mac Isaac also received what he perceived as threats from the IRS, demanding a supposedly overdue $57 from a 2016 tax return. Mac Isaac refused to accuse the Biden family directly, but conceded that he the actions by the government agencies felt retaliatory

Mac Isaac also received what he perceived as threats from the IRS, demanding a supposedly overdue $57 from a 2016 tax return. Mac Isaac refused to accuse the Biden family directly, but conceded that he the actions by the government agencies felt retaliatory

He also said that throughout last year, all of his posts been censored on Facebook, which resulted in him being handed a 30-day suspension in September by the social media giant – which he successfully appealed.

Mac Isaac says he has since written a book about his experiences since reports regarding the laptop went public, but has struggled to find a publisher to get the book off the ground. 

Mac Isaac said he now sustains himself doing odd jobs. 

‘A buddy of mine does estate clean outs, manual labor. I helped a neighbor redo their porch and I’m trying to do more with woodworking.’ 

Despite his current situation, Mac Isaac told The Post that if given the chance to go back and not report the laptop to the feds, he would still have blown the whistle on Biden, 52.

‘If I had the choice to do it again, I would absolutely do it again,’ he told the paper Saturday. ‘I was raised since 9/11 to believe if you see something, you say something.’

Emails on Hunter’s abandoned laptop, obtained by DailyMail.com in 2021, reveal how Joe Biden’s son and his colleagues leveraged their US government connections and plotted a propaganda campaign for the grafting Romanian tycoon. 

A December 2018 text message exchange found on the laptop obtained by DailyMail.com shows Hunter asking corporate attorney George Mesires: 'How much money do I owe you. Becaause (sic) n***a you better not be charging me Hennessy rates'

A December 2018 text message exchange found on the laptop obtained by DailyMail.com shows Hunter asking corporate attorney George Mesires: ‘How much money do I owe you. Becaause (sic) n***a you better not be charging me Hennessy rates’

In another exchange the following month, Hunter flippantly addressed Messires as 'n***a' again and cracked jokes saying 'I only love you because you're black' during a seemingly somber conversation

In another exchange the following month, Hunter flippantly addressed Messires as ‘n***a’ again and cracked jokes saying ‘I only love you because you’re black’ during a seemingly somber conversation 

Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), anyone advocating for foreign entities to US government officials, or acting as a publicist for a foreign entity in the US, must add themselves to a Department of Justice public register. 

However, an exception applies for attorneys representing a client in a foreign court case, who are not required to register under FARA.

Emails show Hunter’s colleagues, partners in law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, Christopher Boies and Michael Gottlieb, seeking to set up meetings with the US Ambassador to Romania, after discussing among themselves whether he would intervene in Popoviciu’s case.

Hunter brought in political heavyweight and family friend Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI, to use his US law enforcement contacts for Popoviciu’s advantage, and was offered a referral fee as a result.

Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI and close family friend of the Bidens

Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI and close family friend of the Bidens 

Hunter and his colleagues also discussed a media campaign, including to major U.S. publication the Wall Street Journal, to support their client who was later found guilty of bribery.

None of them were required to register for this work under FARA, due to various exemptions including those for lawyers of foreign defendants.

The FOIA also seeks information on Rudy Giuliani, who was dispatched by former President Trump to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden’s business relationships with Ukraine. 

Giuliani tipped off the New York Post about the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop.  

In 2020, Senate Republicans investigated Hunter Biden’s $50,000-a-month seat on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, then mired in corruption, while his father helped shape policy toward Kiev.

The matter was at the center of former President Trump’s first impeachment – Trump had pressured Ukrainian officials to investigate Hunter’s business dealings. Giving the appearance of a conflict of interest, Hunter’s board seat alarmed some State Department officials. 

The elder Biden leveraged $1 billion in aid to Ukraine to force the country to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma at the time. But the then-vice president’s office said the U.S. wanted Shokin gone because he was not investigating corruption among the country’s politicians. 

Newly unearthed emails show Joe Biden did indeed meet with his son's Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakhstani business associates while he was vice president after Hunter organized a dinner at a Georgetown restaurant in April 2015

Newly unearthed emails show Joe Biden did indeed meet with his son’s Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakhstani business associates while he was vice president after Hunter organized a dinner at a Georgetown restaurant in April 2015 

But while the investigation found no evidence that Biden as vice president improperly manipulated policy in favor of his son. 

The Republicans’ investigation also found that Hunter had received massive sums of money – some in the seven-figure range – from foreigners in China, Russia and elsewhere while his father was in office. 

Politico reports that the FOIA request threatens to revive an old feud between the Biden White House and the Times’ money and influence reporter Ken Vogel, who has spearheaded coverage of the president’s son. 

Then-deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield wrote to the Times’ executive editor Dean Bacquet and accused Vogel of ‘egregious journalistic malpractice.’  

Then-rapid response director Andrew Bates has also sparred with Vogel on Twitter.  

‘SCOOP from Philadelphia: KEN VOGEL (@kenvogel) is a COWARD,’ Bates tweeted in Feb. 2020.

The laptop, one of three to be 'lost' by Biden, contained embarrassing - and in some cases, incriminating - pictures, videos and communications of the president's son

The laptop, one of three to be ‘lost’ by Biden, contained embarrassing – and in some cases, incriminating – pictures, videos and communications of the president’s son

Bates claimed that Vogel’s report on Hunter Biden’s Ukraine dealings in May 2019 ‘for the first time amplified this misinformation campaign into the mainstream.’ 

Emails found on the laptop pointed to an effort by Hunter to set up a meeting in 2015 between Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser at a Ukrainian energy firm. The FBI had since seized the laptop from the Delaware computer repair shop owner, who says Hunter dropped it off to him in 2019 and never came to retrieve it. 

In an article on reporting on the Federal Election Commission’s decision that Twitter had not violated election law in restricting sharing of the Post piece, the Times initially called the Post report ‘unsubstantiated.’ Later in the day, the September 2021 report was quietly updated to remove the word ‘unsubstantiated.’ 

The Biden campaign at the time denied the meeting between the then-candidate and Ukrainian officials ever took place, saying it was not on his official calendar. 

Emails found on the laptop pointed to an effort by Biden to set up a meeting in 2015 between Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser at a Ukrainian energy firm

Emails found on the laptop pointed to an effort by Biden to set up a meeting in 2015 between Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser at a Ukrainian energy firm

Meanwhile, mainstream left-leaning media outlets were silent when Dailymail.com revealed text messages, exchanged in late 2018 and 2019, recovered from Hunter’s laptop showing him repeatedly using the n-word in conversations with his white lawyer George Messires. 

The salacious and embarrassing texts were revealed in June 2021.  

The president’s son joked in a January 2019 text to corporate attorney George Mesires about a ‘big penis’, and said to the lawyer: ‘I only love you because you’re black’ and ‘true dat n***a’.

In another text a month earlier he wrote to the Chicago lawyer saying: ‘how much money do I owe you. Becaause (sic) n***a you better not be charging me Hennessy rates.’

The laptop's contents showed instances of Biden looking to cash in on his family connections, such as these correspondences between him and WFP USA founder Rick Leach and Kazakhstan banker Marc Holtzman

The laptop’s contents showed instances of Biden looking to cash in on his family connections, such as these correspondences between him and WFP USA founder Rick Leach and Kazakhstan banker Marc Holtzman

Mesires replied: ‘That made me snarf my coffee.’

Hunter added: ‘That’s what im saying ni…’, cutting off the racial slur mid-word, then texted a picture to Mesires.

The picture was not downloaded on Hunter’s laptop, from which the text exchange was recovered by DailyMail.com.

But Mesires replied: ‘Why are you so tan?’

‘I’m sorry for sexting you accidentally that was meant for another friend named Georgia,’ Hunter replied.

Liberal-leaning media outlets were again silent when texts obtained by DailyMail.com and the New York Post revealed that Hunter had allegedly overpaid an escort by $25,000 during a drug-filled bender at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, from which texts show he was later banned for drug use after the hotel found a whole in the wall of a room where he had stayed. 

Secret Service agents showed up at his door to tell him the card he’d used was linked to his father, according to the texts. 

The United States’ most popular left-leaning publications and news networks – including The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC – made no mention of the story in the days after it was broken by the Post, and confirmed by DailyMail.com.

The laptop was just one of three owned by Biden that have come out of his possession and contained sensitive information.

The second was seized by federal agents in October, shortly after reports first surfaced regarding the contents of the first, a 2015 MacBook Pro, and a third, which is still missing, taken by Russian drug dealers after they partied with Biden in Vegas, he told a prostitute in a conversation caught on camera.

Each hold sensitive information on President Joe Biden and embarrassing photographs, videos and communications of his son.

Leaked from the third laptop, is footage of a naked Biden seemingly doing drugs with an also nude prostitute in a Las Vegas hotel room. 

Hunter Biden claims Russian drug dealers stole another one of his laptops for blackmail while he was close to overdosing in a Vegas hotel room in 2018. Video obtained by DailyMail.com shows Hunter with a naked hooker in 2019, explaining how he believed his laptop was stolen

After filming himself having sex with the woman using his laptop in January 2019, Hunter left the camera rolling as he recounted a Vegas bender in which he spent '18 days going round from penthouse suite to penthouse suite,' sometimes costing $10,000 a night

After filming himself having sex with the woman using his laptop in January 2019, Hunter left the camera rolling as he recounted a Vegas bender in which he spent ’18 days going round from penthouse suite to penthouse suite,’ sometimes costing $10,000 a night

Throughout the video Hunter and the unidentified hooker appear to be doing drugs off the bedside table

Throughout the video Hunter and the unidentified hooker appear to be doing drugs off the bedside table 

Hunter said it was after that debauched night he realized his computer was missing. 'I think he's the one that stole my computer,' he said

Hunter said it was after that debauched night he realized his computer was missing. ‘I think he’s the one that stole my computer,’ he said 

The alleged incident would mean Hunter lost a total of three computers, each likely to hold sensitive information on President Joe Biden

The alleged incident would mean Hunter lost a total of three computers, each likely to hold sensitive information on President Joe Biden

After filming himself having sex with the woman using his laptop in January 2019, Hunter left the camera rolling as he recounted a Vegas bender in which he spent ’18 days going round from penthouse suite to penthouse suite,’ sometimes costing $10,000 a night. 

‘I spent f***ing crazy amounts of money,’ Hunter said. ‘I was with these guys. The one guy was, not like you anyway… each night he’d be like ‘there’s going to be so many people here, crazy f***ing party’ and each night it’s nobody.’ 

Biden claimed Russian drug dealers stole the laptop for blackmail while he was close to overdosing in the Las Vegas hotel room, DailyMail.com revealed last year.  

Biden’s claims raise the possibility that he was targeted as a vulnerable conduit to his father, as part of a foreign intelligence operation. 

AUTHENTICATING HUNTER’S LAPTOP

DailyMail.com commissioned cyber forensics experts at Maryman & Associates to examine the hard drive to determine its authenticity.

The firm’s founder, Brad Maryman, was a 29-year veteran of the FBI, served as a Chief Information Security Officer and founded the bureau’s cyber forensics unit. His partner, Dr. Joseph Greenfield, is an associate professor at the University of Southern California and helped write their degree program in intelligence and cyber operations. 

After an extensive analysis of the hard drive, Greenfield and Maryman produced a report for DailyMail.com detailing their findings.

Using the same forensic tools as federal and state law enforcement in criminal investigations, they found a total of 103,000 text messages, 154,000 emails and more than 2,000 photos.

They found emails for multiple accounts on the laptop dating back to 2009, and other data which ‘appears to be related to Mr. Biden’ between 2016 and 2019.

 – The report’s findings were consistent with the known timeline for the hard drive. A Wilmington, Delaware computer store work order with Hunter’s signature shows he left his 2017 MacBook Pro laptop there on April 12, 2019.

The Maryman & Associates report said the original ‘Macintosh HD’ drive was created on March 28, 2018

Hunter’s iCloud email address was added to the laptop’s system on October 21 2018, as well as his work email at his firm Rosemont Seneca on February 2 2019. 

The same day, a Gmail address he used to log onto sex cam sites, and another personal Gmail address belonging to Hunter, were also added. 

– Beau Biden’s old Gmail account was added on February 7 2019.

– Emails addressed to Hunter’s various email addresses dating from December 2009 to December 2020 were found on the system.

– An iPad with the name ‘Hunter’s iPad’ and three email addresses associated with the Biden family was backed up on the laptop and on iCloud in January 2019 and again a month later.

– Greenfield found 818 call logs in this iPad backup with timestamps from June 2016 to February 2019. 

– There were 8,942 entries in the iPad’s contacts book, created between April 2016 and January 2019.

In February 2019 an iPhone XS was also synced with the laptop. Its serial number was consistent with the timestamps of the data on the phone. 

 In conclusion, ‘The operating system timestamps appear to be authentic, and no evidence was found to suggest that the timestamps or data were altered or manufactured,’ the report said. ‘No indications were found that would suggest the data was manufactured.’