Ukraine lawmaker claims 2nd laptop belonging to Hunter Biden's business links has been seized by law enforcement
While the Joe Biden campaign has been left combating the laptop scandal bringing bombshell allegations against Hunter Biden and linking his high-profile father, a fresh claim from within Ukraine is bound to add to its headache with the presidential election just two weeks away. Andrii Derkach, a lawmaker from the Eastern European nation who is also a key player in the dirt-digging mission that President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has engaged in against the elder Biden, has claimed on Facebook that there is a second laptop with proof that the Biden family has engaged in corrupt practices, Daily Beast has reported.
This fresh revelation has come in the wake of Giuliani, 76, rubbishing claims that his latest attack on Biden is part of an election interference plot conceived outside the US. Moreover, Derkach has been deemed to be an “active Russian agent” last month by the treasury department and that has certainly added to the snowballing controversy.
In September, the treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated four individuals linked to Russia for trying to influence the American election. The department designated Derkach pursuant to Executive Order 13848 for his efforts to influence the upcoming election. It said Derkach has been an active Russian agent for over a decade and has maintained close connections with the Russian intelligence.
According to The Daily Beast article, the claim looks to “muddy the waters” around the former New York City mayor’s latest “smoking gun” charges brought against Hunter. While the claim over the first laptop reportedly revealing controversial emails featuring the Bidens has already brought the former vice president’s election campaign under the scanner, Derkach’s claim over a “second laptop” would signify that private computer contents allegedly linked to Hunter have now found their way into various parties -- “A media empire controlled by a Chinese billionaire who’s tight with Steve Bannon; a random Delaware shop owner who is outspoken in his support of Trump; and Derkach.”
Derkach wrote on the social media platform about the in-question New York Post report that banked on unverified images of emails that have been provided by the president’s allies to prove a corruption scheme involving Biden, his son, and Ukrainian gas company Burisma. He then added that there was a second laptop that was used by “two representatives for the interests of [Burisma founder Mykola] Zlochevsky,” the Beast report added.
'Laptop given to Ukrainian law enforcement'
“That laptop was given to Ukrainian law enforcement,” Derkach said, besides adding that the Burisma representatives who made use of the laptop were now working as “witnesses in criminal proceedings.” He said the witnesses were ready to testify about an international corruption scheme involving Biden and his son, Hunter, who served on the board of the gas company.
In January this year, the New York Times reported that Russia’s intelligence agents managed to hack into Burisma computer networks in 2019 though it was not clear how much of data they could access and copy.
Derkach, who cozied up to Trump’s friends during the impeachment proceedings as the Biden episode unfolded, has held a number of press conferences in Kyiv touting evidence of corruption in which Biden allegedly engaged in. He also sought an investigation into Ukraine meddling in the 2016 presidential election even as voices in the US became strong over Russia’s interference in the same.