Clapper/Brennan, et al, are not exactly unbiased observers.
It is amusing how so many Trump-related stories have relied on anonymous sources - Steele Dossier/leaked tax returns/supposed disparaging of US war dead, etc, etc, etc - is perfectly valid and doesn't require confirmation even though on the record actors often times have refuted the allegations.
Here, a physical laptop was dropped off by Hunter Biden for repair. There is a published work order receipt with Biden's signature on that work order. He failed to pick it up. His attorney, when this started to become a thing, called the shop to demand the laptop. For an unpaid $85, rocket scienctist Hunter opened up this whole can of stupidity.
Which had already been subpeonaed by the FBI for a grand jury investigation.
Those are on the record facts. Written and attested to by photographic evidence, FBI statements, court filings.
The emails on that laptop, on the record verified by at least some of the to/from addressees, reveal a lot about Hunter Biden's means of wealth. Selling his name is an old tradition and not illegal.
Where the questions arise are did anyone in the government, to include Joe, do illegal things for that money or the promise of more money?
I hope that folks here can be intellectually honest to admit that A) if the name Trump were associated with any of these shenanigans, you'd be calling for more investigative journalism and B) that the same media that relied, literally for years, on anonymous sources that by definition can't verify anything, ran with the stories/issues above incessantly. Even back to the now infamous Dan Rather fakes of W. Bush's Guard letters for which Rather lost his job. Unverified but ran with the story anyway.
Now they are not a thing unless the "right" news sources say it's a thing. Aided and abetted by Facebook and Twitter. It is completely an editorial decision to go with a story or not, so if the media accepted as the "only" acceptable media doesn't run it, it is dishonest at the least, but totally their call. For Facebook and Twitter, that is also an editorial decision. Not one of a neutral provider.
In 2017, a PRC company deposited $5 million into a Delaware-based LLC listing it as an interest free loan. Which spent the next 12 months depositing that money directly into Hunter's account.