On Hunter Biden’s laptop, the media took their marching orders from the government

Michael Shellenberger, one of three independent journalists tasked by Twitter CEO Elon Musk to investigate and expose the contents of the “Twitter Files,” joined Spotify podcaster Joe Rogan last week to discuss what the trio has discovered about the infiltration of social media platforms by U.S. intelligence agencies.

One of Shellenberger’s most illuminating revelations involved a June 2020 “tabletop exercise” conducted by the Aspen Institute, a progressive nonprofit whose stated mission is the realization of “a free, just, and equitable society.” This organization is funded by donors such as the Carnegie Corporation, the Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and yes, your tax dollars.

According to Shellenberger, the exercise involved role-playing on how to respond to a Russian “hack and leak” operation regarding Hunter Biden. The timing is especially interesting considering the FBI had taken possession of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop six months prior.

John Paul Mac Isaac, the proprietor of the Wilmington, Delaware, computer repair shop where Hunter Biden dropped off his laptop in April 2019, turned it over to the FBI after repeated attempts to reach Hunter Biden failed. He also provided a copy of the hard drive to then-President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

Noting that the Aspen Institute is “funded by the U.S. government,” Shellenberger told Rogan, “[T]he thing that really freaks me out was this thing that the Aspen Institute had. They called it a ‘tabletop exercise’ but it was actually a Zoom call, to role-play how to deal with a Russian hack and leak around Hunter Biden, in like June 2020, months before Rudy Giuliani gives the laptop to the New York Post.”