Daily Beast issues apology to laptop repairman amid lawsuit after claiming Hunter Biden's laptop was 'stolen'

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Hunter Biden laptop blocked by mainstream media a ‘coordinated effort’: Laptop repairman

‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ host Will Cain sits down with laptop repairman John Paul Mac Isaac to discuss his journey through the Hunter Biden case.

The Daily Beast issued an apology to the laptop repairman who first obtained Hunter Biden's computer after the liberal blog erroneously alleged the device was "stolen."

John Paul Mac Isaac was swept up in the New York Post's bombshell reporting in October 2020 that shed light on the shady business dealings overseas of the son of then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden as the Delaware laptop repair shop owner came forward with Hunter Biden's laptop after being alarmed by its content in 2019. 

However, a report published by The Daily Beast in December 2020, after it became public knowledge that Hunter Biden was the subject of a federal criminal investigation over his finances, alleged the laptop was "stolen."

That was until Wednesday when the left-wing outlet updated its report with an "Editor's note."

HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP REPAIRMAN SUES SCHIFF, CNN POLITICO, DAILY BEAST

"An earlier version of this story mistakenly referred to Hunter Biden's laptop as ‘stolen.’ We have removed that word, and we apologize to Mr. Mac Isaac for the error," the Beast wrote. 

John Paul Mac Isaac, who serviced Hunter Biden's laptop, appears on Fox News. (Fox News)

The apology came as Mac Isaac launched a defamation lawsuit against the Daily Beast as well as CNN, Politico and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., over how they portrayed him while pushing the narrative during the 2020 presidential election that the content from Hunter Biden's laptop was the product of Russian disinformation. 

The suit alleges what was said by the media outlets and the top Democratic lawmaker led Mac Isaac to close his Wilmington business. 

It is unclear if the apology is tied to any resolution to Mac Isaac's suit against the Daily Beast. A spokesperson for the Daily Beast did not directly respond to Fox News' inquiry regarding the status of its legal battle. Fox News also reached out to Mac Isaac for comment. 

MSNBC BURIES NBC NEWS REPORT ON HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP, OFFERS LESS THAN 4 MINUTES OF COVERAGE

The vast majority of the legacy media widely dismissed the Hunter Biden scandal in 2020, many of them peddling the false narrative that it was generated from Russia.  

However, news outlets have slowly begun legitimizing the laptop during Joe Biden's presidency. 

NBC News reported on May 19 that an analysis of Hunter Biden's hard drive raised national security questions.  ((Randy Holmes via Getty Images))

Politico was the first to offer credence to emails found on the infamous laptop, citing reporting from correspondent Ben Schreckinger's book about the Biden family. 

"A person who had independent access to Hunter Biden’s emails confirmed he did receive a 2015 email from a Ukrainian businessman thanking him for the chance to meet Joe Biden. The same goes for a 2017 email in which a proposed equity breakdown of a venture with Chinese energy executives includes the line, ‘10 held by H for the big guy?’" Politico Playbook repeated from the book's reporting in September 2021. "Emails released by a Swedish government agency also match emails in the leaked cache, and two people who corresponded with Hunter Biden confirmed emails from the cache were genuine."

HUNTER BIDEN SAGA: NBC NEWS JOINS NYT, WAPO, POLITICO IN VERIFYING LAPTOP DISMISSED AS RUSSIAN DISINFO IN 2020

Fast-forward to March when The New York Times published a lengthy report about the Justice Department's ongoing investigation of Hunter Biden, who himself publicly acknowledged in December 2020 that the feds were looking into his "tax affairs."

The Times reported that while Hunter Biden has "paid off a significant tax liability," a federal grand jury has subpoenaed witnesses and documents regarding his foreign business dealings. 

Buried in the Times' lengthy article was a paragraph addressing a "cache" of emails the paper reviewed as part of its report, which came from the laptop abandoned in the Delaware repair show and were "authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation."

Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden.  (Getty Images)

Just days after the New York Times ran its report that verified the laptop, the Washington Post ran its own bombshell about Hunter Biden's "multimillion-dollar" financial ties to the Chinese energy company CEFC China Energy.

"The Post review draws in part on an analysis of a copy said to be of the hard drive of a laptop computer that Hunter Biden purportedly dropped off at a Delaware repair shop and never came to collect. The laptop was turned over to the FBI in December 2019, according to documents reviewed by The Post, and a copy of the drive was obtained by Rudy Giuliani and other advisers to then-President Donald Trump a few months before the 2020 election," the Post reported.

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Last week, NBC News joined the laptop bandwagon with a story headlined, "Analysis of Hunter Biden's hard drive shows he, his firm took in about $11 million from 2013 to 2018, spent it fast," citing documents showing the fortune he made while working for the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, as well as through his business ties to a Chinese energy company.

The report also highlighted some of Hunter Biden's expenditures showing he "spent more than $200,000 per month from October 2017 through February 2018 on luxury hotel rooms, Porsche payments, dental work and cash withdrawals."

"NBC News obtained a copy of Biden’s laptop hard drive from a representative of Rudy Giuliani and examined Biden’s business dealings from 2013 to 2018 based on the information available on the hard drive and the scope of the documents released by the Senate," the report stated. 

Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.