Hunter Biden email story: Computer repair store owner describes handing over laptop to FBI

The owner of a Delaware computer repair store where a man he believes was Hunter Biden dropped off a laptop that allegedly contained emails detailing an opportunity for a meeting between former Vice President Joe Biden and a top Burisma executive and other "disturbing" items, told Fox News on Wednesday that he was frightened by what he saw.

The man, John Paul Mac Isaac, said he has a condition that affects his vision and “can’t be 100% sure” it was Hunter Biden who dropped off the computer for repair. The Wilmington shop owner said he contacted the FBI out of concern, but declined to specify what he meant.

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Isaac’s claim that the laptop in question belonged to Hunter Biden has yet to be substantiated. Isaac told the New York Post, which first published the emails earlier Wednesday, that he determined it was Hunter Biden because the laptop had a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation, which is named after his late older brother.

“I just don't know what to say, or what I'm allowed to say,” Isaac said. “I know that I saw, I saw stuff. And I was concerned. I was concerned that somebody might want to come looking for this stuff eventually and I wanted it out of my shop.”

When asked, Isaac, whose social media posts indicate is a supporter of President Trump, rejected the possibility that the laptop did not belong to Hunter Biden and was an attempt to set him up.

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Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings drew renewed scrutiny following the New York Post’s publication of a 2015 email purportedly exchanged between him and an executive at Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings. At the time, Hunter Biden served on the company’s board of directors.

Isaac said the man who he believes to be Hunter Biden dropped off three laptops at his store in April 2019, only one of which was salvageable. While repairing the laptop, Isaac said he discovered disturbing material.

The customer did not return for the laptop within 90 days and Isaac could not get in touch with him. Isaac said he first searched the emails by keyword in June or July of 2019.

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“If I'm somebody that has no journalistic ability, no detective ability or investigative ability and I was able to find stuff in a short period of time, somebody else should have been able to find something to show,” Isaac said.

In September, he contacted an intermediary about the emails. The intermediary then contacted the FBI.

Isaac said the intermediary is an American citizen who he has known for decades, but declined to provide further details about their identity.

According to Isaac’s account, the FBI first made a forensic copy of the laptop, then returned weeks later with a subpoena and confiscated it. When he stopped hearing from the FBI, Isaac said he contacted several members of Congress, who did not respond. At that point, his intermediary reached out to Rudy Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello.

An attorney for Hunter Biden told the New York Post that Giuliani “has been pushing widely discredited conspiracy theories about the Biden family, openly relying on actors tied to Russian intelligence.”

An FBI spokesperson declined Fox News' request for comment, citing the bureau's practice of neither confirming nor denying the existence of an investigation.

Representatives for Delaware's U.S. Attorney's office did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment. When contacted by the New York Post, a spokesperson for the Delaware U.S. Attorney's office said, “My office can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation."

The New York Post published photos of a Delaware federal subpoena that detailed the FBI's seizure of a laptop and hard drive.

When asked what he hoped would come of the information once it went public, Isaac was ambivalent about his motives. He acknowledged the current political landscape had played a role in his actions and specifically referenced Trump’s impeachment as a motivating factor.

“I wanted -- above all, I wanted safety and security,” Isaac said. “I wanted anonymity. I wanted just to be [able] to wash my hands of it, and like it never happened. And that did not happen.”

In the email published by the New York Post, Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, thanked Hunter Biden for introducing him to then-Vice President Joe Biden. Less than a year after the meeting took place, Biden is accused of pressuring the Ukrainian government to fire a prosecutor who had launched an investigation into Burisma.

“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure,” the email reads.

In an earlier email from May 2014 which was obtained by Fox News, Pozharskyi, who was said to be Burisma’s No. 3 executive, asked Biden for “advice on how you could use your influence” to help the company.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is investigating the newly released emails, Fox News confirmed.

The Biden campaign pushed back on the allegations in the report, asserting that a review of the former vice president’s “official schedules from the time” showed that “no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place.”

"Investigations by the press, during impeachment, and even by two Republican-led Senate committees whose work was decried as 'not legitimate' and political by a GOP colleague have all reached the same conclusion: that Joe Biden carried out official U.S. policy toward Ukraine and engaged in no wrongdoing,” Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. “Trump administration officials have attested to these facts under oath.”

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Critics have long alleged that Hunter Biden leveraged his father’s position in the Obama administration to enrich himself in his personal business dealings. The Trump campaign has repeatedly attacked Biden on the campaign trail regarding his son’s conduct.

When pressed on the matter by Trump during the first presidential debate last month, Joe Biden again denied Hunter had engaged in any wrongdoing.

“My son did nothing wrong at Burisma. He doesn’t want to let me answer because he knows I have the truth,” Joe Biden said. “His position has been totally, thoroughly discredited -- by the media, by our allies, by the World Bank, by everyone.”