Republican congressman Matt Gaetz tried to enter the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop into the congressional record on Tuesday — but was blocked by the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Gaetz (R-Fla.) made the move during a hearing on oversight of the FBI’s Cyber Division after its assistant director, Bryan Vordran, testified that he didn’t “have any information about the Hunter Biden laptop,” which the bureau seized from a Delaware repair shop in December 2019.
“I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record of this committee, the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which I’m in possession of,” Gaetz said while holding up what appeared to be a small external hard drive.
Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) responded, “I’m not –” and paused to confer with an aide, during which another lawmaker said, “There’s no objection to that.”
Nadler then announced, “I will object, pending further investigation.”
“What’s the basis of that objection?” Gaetz shot back.
“It’s a unanimous consent request and I object, pending further investigation,” Nadler said.
“It may very well be entered into the record after we have a chance to look at it further.”
Gaetz — who’s under investigation in the alleged sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl, which he’s denied as a “witch hunt” — then asked for and got permission to enter into the record a copy of the receipt issued by the repair shop where the MacBook Pro computer was dropped off in April 2019.
The shop’s owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, is legally blind and has said he can’t identify whoever left the water-damaged laptop with him and never retrieved it.
Mac Isaac later turned over its contents to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who arranged to share them with The Post in October 2020, leading to a blockbuster series of exclusive reports.
Earlier this month, Mac Isaac told The Post that he’s now facing bankruptcy since “getting a lot of death threats” and harassment that forced him to close down his shop and flee to Colorado for nearly a year.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Gaetz repeatedly grilled Vorndran about the whereabouts of the laptop and what the FBI has done with it, which Vorndran said he didn’t know.
“So, will you commit to give us a briefing as the assistant director of FBI cyber as to where the laptop is, whether or not it’s a point of vulnerability, whether or not the American people should wonder whether or not the first family is compromised?” Gaetz said.
Vondran said, “Sir, I’d be happy to take your requests back to our office.”
Also Tuesday, Gaetz announced he would introduce legislation, called the “Spook Who Cried Wolf Resolution,” to indefinitely bar security clearances for 51 former US intelligence officials who signed what he called “a letter decrying the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation.”
In their public statement dated Oct. 19, 2020, the ex-officials — including five former CIA directors or acting directors — said they didn’t know if the material on the laptop was “genuine” but said its release weeks before the presidential election had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”