Except that we know that the Russians hacked Bursima's servers... so they would have no problem downloading emails and loading them onto a fake computer.
Common sense is that when someone comes to you with a dodgy story about a laptop that was left behind a year ago, and you happened to look into the files, and they happen to prove every batshit conspiracy theory that has already been investigated and debunked, you should take it with a grain of salt.
What’s Really Going on With Hunter Biden’s Hard Drive? Here’s Everything We Know.
How to make sense of the weirdest, weakest October surprise ever.
There are also strong indicators that Russia had something to do with this whole affair, though nothing has surfaced definitively proving this is the case. In January, the same Russian intelligence unit that hacked Hillary Clinton’s and the Democratic National Committee’s emails in 2016 was also able to infiltrate Burisma’s systems. U.S. intelligence analysts subsequently picked up chatter indicating that stolen Burisma emails would be leaked as part of an October surprise aimed at influencing the election. Analysts were further concerned that forged materials might be included in the leak—something that, without the original materials in question, journalists can’t verify for themselves, leaving everyone to take the New York Post’s word. (And, in case you forgot, U.S. intelligence agencies once again say Russia is trying to tilt the election in favor of Trump.)
Intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that Russian operatives were trying to use Giuliani as a vessel for disinformation that would hurt Joe Biden. (Trump reportedly dismissed the warning by shrugging and saying, “That’s Rudy.”) The agencies decided to sound the alarm after Giuliani met with a pro-Russia member of Ukraine’s parliament named Andriy Derkach, whom the U.S. Treasury Department believes has been a Kremlin agent for more than a decade. Derkach, who has previously spread disinformation meant to influence the upcoming election, has been helping Giuliani look for damaging information about the Bidens in Ukraine. Giuliani has laughed off allegations that he’s the Kremlin’s patsy, claiming to the Daily Beast, “The chance that Derkach is a Russian spy is no better than 50/50.”
The owner of the shop was later revealed to be John Paul MacIsaac of Wilmington. He is an avid Trump supporter and has been repeatedly changing his story about what exactly occurred. He initially said that he wasn’t able to identify who dropped off the laptop because he is “legally blind.” MacIsaac then said that the customer had identified himself as Hunter Biden. The shop does have two cameras, but MacIsaac claims that the footage from that day was automatically deleted before he realized how important it was. He’s given conflicting accounts of how he came into contact with the FBI and says he initially made a copy of the hard drive for personal protection, citing the conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton’s associates had killed a DNC staffer for leaking information. MacIsaac has generally been cagey with the press about his dealings with Giuliani and what he found on the hard drive.
