(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) President Donald Trump disbanded the FBI office that prompted Big Tech companies to believe that the Hunter Biden laptop bombshell was tied to a Russian disinformation campaign.
The FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force briefed social media platforms about a so-called Russian hack-and-leak operation in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. Weeks later, the New York Post published its explosive reporting on the Biden laptop.
Social media companies—freshly briefed by the task force—immediately censored the spread of the laptop story, supporting claims by the Biden campaign that the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation effort.
Worse yet, the FBI knew the laptop was real but refused to confirm its authenticity, effectively shielding the Biden campaign from scrutiny and helping secure a favorable election outcome.
The laptop confirmed that then-Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden had lied about his involvement in Hunter’s shady business dealings, which ultimately triggered years-long criminal and congressional investigations.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the task force’s shutdown in an internal memo issued on Feb. 5, stating that the move was intended to free up “resources to address more pressing priorities” and to end “risks of further weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion.”
Bondi also declared that criminal charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act would “be limited to instances of alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.”
The infamous task force was launched in 2018 by then-FBI Director Chris Wray. He resigned before Trump could fire him after taking office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Wray claimed the task force operated across all 56 field offices and focused on election threats and partnerships with private companies.
“This year, we’ve met with top social media and technology companies several times,” Wray admitted in 2018. “We’ve given them classified briefings, and we’ve shared specific threat indicators and account information, so they can better monitor their own platforms.”
He added, “It’s going to take all of us working together to hold the field, because this threat is not going away. As I’ve said consistently, Russia attempted to interfere with the last election, and it continues to engage in malign influence operations to this day.”
