National security nightmare
Revealed in full, the story the US media and tech giants tried to bury. How the adored son of the man expected to be the next President abandoned a laptop crammed with top secret material – laying himself wide open to blackmail
THE son of the man expected to be America’s next President abandoned a laptop containing a treasure trove of topsecret material, including his father’s private emails and mobile phone numbers, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
In an astonishing lapse, Hunter Biden chose to protect his MacBook Pro computer – crammed with what an IT expert last night described as a ‘national security nightmare’ and ‘classic blackmail material’ – with a single, simple password: Hunter02.
Remarkably, the 50-year-old businessman and self-confessed drug addict took the machine to a back-street IT store in Delaware in April 2019 to get it repaired – yet never returned to collect it.
Its existence was revealed by the New York Post last month, but the staggering scale and sensitivity of its contents – easily accessible to a hacker with a modicum of skill – is only revealed for the first time today.
The material, none of which was encrypted or protected by anything as basic as twofactor authentication, includes:
Joe Biden’s personal mobile number and three private email addresses as well as the names of his Secret Service agents;
Mobile numbers for former President Bill Clinton, his wife Hillary and almost
‘Mobile numbers for Clintons … and Obama’s cabinet’
every member of former President Barack Obama’s cabinet;
A contact database of 1,500 people including actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, former Presidential candidate John Kerry and ex-FBI boss Louis Freeh;
Personal documents including Hunter’s passport, driver’s licence, social security card, credit cards and bank statements;
Details of Hunter’s drug and sex problems, including $21,000 spent on one ‘live cam’ porn website and ‘selfies’ of him engaging in sex acts and smoking crack cocaine;
While Hunter has been accused of using his family name to help with deals with Ukrainian and Chinese firms, there is nothing on the laptop to implicate Joe Biden in any wrongdoing. One email relating to a failed Chinese deal refers to a payment of ten per cent to ‘the Big Guy’, which some have suggested is the presidential hopeful.
However, Mr Biden has insisted:
‘I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life.’
Last night, IT expert Chris Greany said it was ‘staggering’ the laptop had not been encrypted.
‘It’s a data breach and dangerous to have this type of material floating around,’ said the former police commander, who advised successive British Foreign Secretaries on laptop security. ‘For someone prominent, there is not only a risk of great reputational damage but also a risk of blackmail should the material fall into the wrong hands.’
The revelations come just 48 hours before Americans give their verdict at the end of a rancorous election campaign. They will send shockwaves through Mr Biden’s campaign team, which is desperate to avoid last-minute scandals that may erode his eight-point lead in the polls.
Donald Trump has accused the mainstream US press and social media giants of ignoring – and even burying – the Hunter laptop affair. He claims a liberal, pro-Democrat elite is ‘protecting’ his rival.
Hunter’s laptop contains 11 gigabytes of material and covers the period from when Mr Biden served as Vice President under Mr Obama to when Hunter dropped it at the Mac Store in Wilmington. A small selection of its contents was leaked to the press by Mr Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, sparking unsubstantiated claims that the material may have been fabricated by Russia to derail Mr Biden’s White House bid. Others have suggested the laptop and its contents are a hoax perpetuated by China to weaken Mr Biden.
Yet neither Hunter nor his father have questioned that the laptop was left at the Delaware store nor the authenticity of material from it that has so far appeared in the media.
Evidence seen by The Mail on Sunday appears to confirm that Hunter left the laptop at the shop and the FBI later picked it up.
Last night, lawyers for Hunter declined to comment. Representa
tives for Mr Biden did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
A forensic cyber expert hired to analyse material downloaded from the laptop says it is authentic.
‘I have been doing this for 20 years and there is nothing to suggest the laptop or its contents have been interfered with or altered in any way,’ said the expert, who has worked with US law enforcement agencies.
‘There is no sign of data being added. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the real deal.’
The FBI, which took possession of a copy of the computer hard drive last December, declined to confirm or deny if it was carrying out an investigation.
However, Tony Bobulinski, one of Hunter’s former business partners, claims he was interviewed by FBI agents in Washington on October 23 and during that meeting handed over mobile phone records that match material on the laptop.
Last night, a source familiar with the contents of the MacBook Pro said: ‘The sheer volume of personal and financial information indicates Hunter has been potential blackmail fodder for years. It seems almost inconceivable that Hunter
Biden, the son of the man likely to become our next President, was so naive and reckless that he did not have basic encryption or even a two-stage password to protect such highly sensitive material.’
Information stored on the laptop includes names and mobile phone numbers sent to Hunter by staff in Mr Biden’s office at the White House in June 2015, a few days after the funeral of Hunter’s
‘There’s a risk of great reputational damage’
brother, Beau, who died of brain cancer, aged 46.
As well as the Clintons, there are numbers for two of America’s most powerful political leaders – Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. An earlier email from November 2011 lists the names and mobile numbers for Mr Biden’s Secret Service detail while he was Vice President.
A source said: ‘This is all a flagrant breach of security. If a hostile state or individual had managed to hack into Hunter’s computer – and it wouldn’t have been difficult considering the lack of security on it – they would have easily found out who was guarding the Vice President and potentially been able to threaten family members of those Secret Service members.’
After his brother’s death, Hunter – while still married, but separated from his first wife Kathleen – had an affair with Beau’s widow, Hallie. The laptop contains scores of text messages between them as well as emails between Hunter and Kathleen as their relationship imploded and a bitter divorce battle began.
In one angry note to Kathleen, Hunter says: ‘Have I ever missed a tuition payment or mortgage payment, a play or a game or anything that ever mattered… Do you know what I’ve done to make that possible. Do you have any idea of the level of degradation?’
Hunter has long been considered the black sheep of the Biden family with his alcohol, drug and sex problems making headlines in America – although his father has loyally stood by him.
After Hunter publicly acknowledged his battle with alcohol and drugs in April 2019 – the same month in which he visited the Mac Store – Mr Biden said: ‘Beau was my soul. Hunter is my heart.’
Even last week, the man strongly tipped to become America’s 46th President described his son as ‘the smartest guy I know’. It is doubtful whether his campaign managers or supporters share that view.