Hunter Biden was paid millions by Chinese state-linked energy firm, Washington Post report finds

A Washington Post report published Wednesday shed new light on Hunter Biden's dealings with a Chinese energy firm and confirmed several details found on the hard drive of a laptop he allegedly abandoned in a Delaware repair shop.

CEFC China Energy, which has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and People's Liberation Army, paid entities controlled by the then-cash-strapped Hunter Biden or his uncle James Biden $4.8 million over the course of 14 months beginning in 2017, according to The Washington Post.

The New York Post began publishing stories based on information found on the laptop hard drive in September 2020. Due to concerns about the laptop's provenance and warnings from current and former intelligence officials that the laptop might be a Russian disinformation operation, social media sites suppressed the story until after the election.

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Now, the New York Post is arguing that social media users' inability to share the Hunter Biden laptop story "helped swing the election to Biden."

Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that emails recovered from the laptop had been "authenticated." Wednesday's Washington Post report adds further weight to that authentication.

The Hunter Biden story may not have propelled former President Donald Trump to victory in 2020, but he's hoping it might help him win in 2024. In an interview broadcast Tuesday, Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin "should release" any dirt he has on Hunter Biden and that Putin would probably "be willing" to provide it, since he's currently "not exactly a fan of our country."

Hunter Biden remains under federal tax investigation by a grand jury. According to The Washington Post, the investigation once sought to determine whether "he failed to account for income from China-related deals," though "it is unclear whether that is still a focus."