The FBI knew that Hunter Biden's "laptop from hell" was legitimate a full year before the 2020 presidential election, according to an IRS whistleblower. 

Gary Shapley told the House Ways and Means Committee that the FBI validated the laptop in November 2019, within a month of becoming aware of it.

Shapley said he suspected the probe was being slowed down on purpose to avoid triggering an informal 60-day rule that cautions the DOJ to "stand down" before an election.

Laptop cover-up

The FBI verified the laptop, which had been left at a computer repair shop, "in November of 2019 by matching the device number against Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud ID,” Shapley said.

Shapley confirmed the laptop was analyzed and found to be "not manipulated in any way."

“The computer guy said that they could do a CSV list that shows when everything was created … the whole discussion was about can we rely on this information on the laptop, is it Hunter Biden’s? And their opinion was, it was, and it was not manipulated in any way,” he said.

The feds seized the laptop in December of 2019 and notified the IRS "it likely contained evidence of tax crimes," Shapley said, but investigators were not granted access to all of the evidence on the laptop, something Shapley called "unprecedented."

He said there is "no way of knowing" if evidence of other crimes involving Biden or his father exists because of the restrictions imposed on investigators, including an admonition "to not look into anything related to President Biden."

FBI knew all along

The laptop only became known to the public days before the 2020 election when the New York Post began reporting on its contents. But the scandal was ignored by mainstream media and censored online on the false pretext that it was "Russian disinformation."

The bogus claim was being pushed by the Biden campaign in coordination with former intelligence agents who signed a letter asserting without evidence that the laptop was a Russian fake. Joe Biden himself cited the letter to dismiss the scandal during a debate with then-president Trump.

In short, it appears the feds were well aware the laptop was real when it was widely being reported that it was a Russian fake days before the election.

Shapley said steps were taken "at every stage" of the investigation to protect Hunter, including a failure to execute a search of his father's guest house months before the election. Assistant prosecutor Lesley Wolf raised concerns about "optics," a courtesy that has not been extended to President Trump.

What did the FBI not do to get "the big guy" elected?