Secret Service says it’s ‘aware’ of alleged Hunter Biden iCloud hack

The Secret Service said Monday it’s “aware” of a potential hack of an iCloud owned by Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, after some of its alleged contents were posted to the online forum 4Chan.

“At this time we are not in a position to make public comments on potential investigative actions but I can assure you the Secret Service along with other federal law enforcement partners are aware of the social media posts and claims referencing Mr. Biden,” U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement.

NBC News was not able to immediately get access to the material and it is not yet possible to determine if the purported copy of the iCloud account was current or if it comes from material that has previously been reviewed by NBC and other news organizations. 

Some of that information first emerged in the runup to the 2020 election, after former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said he obtained Hunter Biden’s laptop from a Delaware computer store and shared a copy of the hard drive with the New York Post. NBC News was unable to confirm the content and authenticity of the emails and other records at the time because Giuliani refused to share a copy of the hard drive.

A Giuliani representative provided NBC with a copy of the drive earlier this year. An NBC analysis of the hard drive, iCloud account and documents released from two Senate committees showed Hunter Biden and his company brought in about $11 million via his roles as an attorney and a board member with a Ukrainian firm accused of bribery and his work with a Chinese businessman now accused of fraud.

An attorney for Hunter Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the alleged hack Monday.

Hunter Biden acknowledged in a statement in December of 2020 that federal investigators are probing his “tax affairs.” A representative for Biden said in May he’s paid off all of his tax responsibilities to the IRS, but legal experts have said that wouldn’t necessarily spare him from any potential criminal liability.

Tom Winter is a New York-based correspondent covering crime, courts, terrorism and financial fraud on the East Coast for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.