A Few Data Points

I note several stories that appear as puzzling data points, some or all of which may or may not be related. But if any of several are, something's going on.

• Warren Buffett has resigned as a director of the Gates Foundation. This may simply be because he's 90 and reducing his workload, or it may be in anticipation of what may come out in the Gates divorce case.
• The Lancet has acknowledged that Peter Daszak had a conflict of interest in items he published there. It has recused him from its commission investigating COVID's origins. Eventually EcoHealth Alliance will be forced to remove him as CEO, also due to conflict of interest.
• China is replacing its ambassador to the US with a man closer to Xi who has a harder-line style. This clearly has nothing to do with a rumored high-level defector.
• A new set of juicy stories has suddenly emerged from Hunter Biden's laptop, eight months after a first flurry. This clearly has nothing to do with rumors of a high-level Chinese defector who provided US intelligence with the contents of Hunter's laptop, which of course US intelligence already had.

The Hunter laptop story is especially puzzling. Initially reported in the New York Post, it contains photos and e-mails related to a 2018 stay by Hunter at the $700-a-night Chateau Marmont hotel in Hollywood, in which he engaged the services of an escort, Yanna.

Yanna stays for a couple days and wants to be paid. The problem is Hunter’s debit cards aren’t working and she’s not leaving without the $8,000 he owes her for the extended callout. On the morning of May 24, hung over and out of sorts, Hunter adds a new recipient on the cash transfer app Zelle, a woman named Gulnora, the registered agent for Emerald Fantasy Girls and Yanna’s employer.

He transfers $8,000. It doesn’t work. A few minutes later, Wells Fargo sends him a fraud detection alert. He reaches into his wallet and pulls out a card. Yanna attempts to transfer the $8,000 but it apparently doesn’t go through. He rifles through his wallet again. No luck. He pulls out another card. Bingo.

Yanna leaves and he crashes. But while he sleeps, his bank accounts are being emptied. In receipts he saves on the computer, the transactions he thought had failed have gone through, one after the other. The first $8,000 is recorded leaving his account at 10:22 a.m. At 10:50 a.m., $2,000 leaves a different account. At 10:59 a.m., $3,500 vanishes. At 11 a.m., another $8,000. At 11:03 a.m., another $3,500. About $25,000 moves in under an hour. Another $3,500 is scheduled to transfer out later that afternoon but will be delayed.

Isn't that odd? None of his wallet full of debit cards will pay out, which given Hunter's lifestyle is no surprise. But all of a sudden, bam, within hours, all of the charges that were declined hours before suddently get paid, just like that. Yanna has to scramble to send back the extra money. But given Hunter's history, it's no surprise that there are even more new developments:

What we do know from the laptop is that a few hours after Hunter’s debit-card woes began, text messages start arriving that are labeled as being from Robert Savage III. Savage was once the Secret Service’s special agent in charge of the Los Angeles field office and a contact card for him appears on the laptop, with a photographic avatar, phone number and Secret Service email address.

The Secret Service told The Post that Savage retired from the agency on April 30, 2018 — weeks before the Biden debauchery — and that the agency “did not provide protection to any member of the Biden family in 2018.”

Savage’s lawyer says, “My client has never met or communicated with Hunter Biden and has never been to the Chateau Marmont and had not even heard of the hotel. In fact, my client was retired before the date of these fabricated text messages.”

The activity recorded on Hunter’s devices shows Savage sending Hunter an urgent missive on May 24 at 6:37 p.m.: “H – I’m in the lobby come down. Thanks, Rob.”

Hunter replies: “5 minutes.”

Five minutes later, Savage texts again: “Come on H, this is linked to Celtic’s account. DC is calling me every 10. Let me up or come down. I can’t help if you don’t let me H.”

“Celtic” was Joe Biden’s Secret Service code name when he was vice president.

Did one of the credit cards used to pay Yanna belong to Joe Biden? Was it a shared account?

Hunter replies: “I promise be right down. Sorry.”

Five minutes later, Savage texts Hunter again to say that Dale Pupillo, a retired deputy assistant director of the Secret Service, who used to guard his father, has arrived. Invoices indicate that Pupillo did background checks for Hunter on potential business partners. Pupillo did not return requests for comment.

“He’s going to front desk, call and tell them to give us a key now H.

“As your friend, we need to resolve this in the immediate.

“Call the front desk now H or I will have to assume you are in danger and we will have to make them give us the keys.”

For nine minutes, Hunter does not reply.

“Really, Rob I am coming down right now,” Hunter texts at 6:54 p.m. “I really promise. Was in the bathroom buddy. Coming right this second.”

Thirty seconds later, Savage replies: “We’re at your door. Open it.”

What these apparent minders told Hunter next isn’t recorded on his devices. We know Hunter stays up the rest of that night, logging into an encrypted government site, “secure.login.gov,” a number of times until 4:04 a.m.

The big question for me is how this has become news just now, so long after the stories in October 2020, and even longer after the laptop had gone to the FBI. Indeed, Rudy Giuliani claims to have given a copy of the laptop to the Post last year. And this is the first we hear of this?

Oh, by the way, another recent story says Hunter was blacklisted from Chateau Marmont by July 2018, after the May escapade with Yanna. I wonder who was involved with that -- it came as a big surprise to Hunter.

Another question: who's able toi call retired Secret Service agents to clean up Hunter's mess? How are they able to exert authority on the hotel to give them the key to Hunter's room on their say-so, when none is working for the government?

Another question: Hunter, not at that time a government associate and with his father out of government office in 2018, gets to login to a secure government account. Why?

And clearly these new stories have nothing at all to do with rumors of a defector from Chinese intelligence who had a copy of Hunter's laptop. Not credible at all.