In the waning days of the 2016 election, the FBI announced that it had found emails pertinent to its investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state on a laptop belonging to former Rep. Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. In the wake of the announcement, right-wing conspiracy theorists began baselessly asserting that the laptop contained numerous videos showing Clinton and Abedin sexually abusing and torturing children.
The laptop, of course, contained nothing of the sort, but the false allegation is still widely believed by supporters of the "Pizzagate" and QAnon conspiracy theories, which alleges that President Donald Trump has been working to take down high-level entertainment figures and Democratic politicians who are supposedly part of a global network of satanic pedophiles.
With just two weeks to go until the 2020 election, the right appears to be using this disinformation same strategy yet again, only now it is aimed at Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Last week, the New York Post published a highly suspect article claiming to have obtained a hard drive from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden that was left unclaimed at a Delaware computer repair shop. The two key "sources" behind the story have been former Trump campaign and White House adviser Steve Bannon, who is currently under indictment for fraud, and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has been endlessly spreading unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about the Bidens for years.
Predictably, the existence of this alleged hard drive has resulted in right-wing conspiracy theorists asserting that it contains videos showing Hunter Biden sexually abusing and torturing children.
Right-wing commentator, conspiracy theorist and Donald Trump obsessed sycophant Wayne Allyn Root has been leading the charge on Twitter:
BREAKING NEWS. My sources- as high up as it gets- watched videos on Hunter's laptops TODAY. Just told me point blank...no rumor...they saw Hunter raping & torturing little Chinese children...Chinese govt has the same videos...Biden is compromised. Blackmailed. Can NEVER be Prez.
— Wayne Allyn Root (@RealWayneRoot) October 19, 2020
My sources who actually watched videos & images on Hunter Biden’s laptop said it was horrifying. Obviously any sex w/prepubescent girls is automatically “rape.” & any abuse of little girls is automatically “torture.” This is disgraceful. & easy for China to blackmail Joe.
— Wayne Allyn Root (@RealWayneRoot) October 19, 2020
I know the people who have seen images on laptop. Very real. It’s Hunter Biden’s laptop. Saw his emails detailing massive corruption & bribery scam by Joe Biden. My high level sources watched terrible images of Hunter w/young girls. Sorry Dems, it’s real. https://t.co/KQGUAjwGtn
— Wayne Allyn Root (@RealWayneRoot) October 19, 2020
Root's tweets have been widely spread by various other right-wing conspiracy theorists, such as pastor Greg Locke and QAnon supporter Ann Vandersteel:
THIS IS NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORY FOLKS. https://t.co/zySWpZySci
— Pastor Greg Locke (@pastorlocke) October 19, 2020
How do you Redpill people without destroying their minds and torture their souls? https://t.co/pKCT9r3jY3
— FEARLESS Ann Vandersteel (@annvandersteel) October 19, 2020
Naturally, radical right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones basically dedicated his entire Infowars network to covering the story over the weekend, posting several videos claiming to have confirmation that the laptop contains multiple videos showing Hunter Biden engaging in "serious torture porn" of pre-pubescent girls.
"This is not just an adult man having sex with what looks like 10-year-old girls," Jones said. "He's beating and torturing them and beating the living hell out of them."
"This fits into the whole M.O. of these people," Jones added. "Their selfishness, their corruption. 'Oh, you want me to shoot films with underage girls? I'll break their jaws. I'll slap them. I'll hit them. I'll shove huge things that damage their bodies into them.' This is serious torture porn."
