Republican Senator Ron Johnson said Friday it is 'jaw-dropping' the media has 'finally acknowledged' that Hunter Biden's laptop and its content are legitimate - even though it was verified a year ago.

The Wisconsin lawmaker, who was one of the first to investigate what was on the computer, has joined his GOP colleagues demanding accountability for those who dismissed the story as fake in the months before the 2020 general election.

Many in his party are now also calling for Meta and Twitter to be investigated for removing or reducing the distribution of stories when they were first published a year ago because they were labeled 'disinformation' 

The outrage and demands for apologies follows a New York Time's story published on Wednesday night about the federal tax probe into the President's son that confirmed the laptop abandoned at a Delaware repair store was authentic. 

The Grey Lady has also asked the State Department for any emails they have relating to Hunter Biden and his business dealings. 

DailyMail.com authenticated the laptop a full year earlier than the New York Times story, and was the first - and only - news organization to publicly verify its contents using expert analysis. 

'I didn't realize anyone was still questioning that Hunter Biden's computer disk drive was fake. I thought that had been established for well over a year,' Johnson said in a statement to DailyMail.com.

'It shows how bias the mainstream media truly is.

They're not journalists anymore. They're advocates for the radical left. 

'It's jaw-dropping that they would come out now and finally acknowledge what the rest of us acknowledged to be true long ago and they won't ever admit they were wrong.

He then questioned the role of the 50 former intelligence officials who insisted in 2020, before the election, that the laptop and its emails were Russian disinformation.

'That again, proves corruption. There's corruption within the mainstream media too. 

'It's an enormous problem we're facing in this country today. We need a free press, but we need a free press that is largely unbiased. 

'That is not what we have today. We have to take a look at what has happened to our society - the division, the disunity - because of the falsehoods they've been pushing out for years.

It's scandalous. When will the advocates in the media apologize for what they've done to America?'

Republican Rep. Jim Banks also called for Meta and Twitter to be investigated with a tweet on Thursday asking when they will be 'held accountable for knowingly and intentionally lying to the American people to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story days before the election???

'big sexy women xxx Tech interfered in our democracy and there must be consequences!' 

In October 2020, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said on Twitter: 'While I will intentionally not link to the New York Post, I want be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by Facebook's third-party fact checking partners.

In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform.'

Twitter took the same action. 

Meta and Twitter had not responded to request for comment at the time of publication. 

Former President Donald Trump on Friday said the New York Times 'admitted' being  part of an effort to 'rig' the election for Joe Biden with their report Wednesday night.

There was also vindication for the ex-President who was told he was told by Lesley Stahl during a 60 Minutes interview in October 2020 that the contents of the laptop could not be verified and it had already been investigated by Republicans in the Senate.

When files from the laptop were published before the 2020 presidential election, the newspaper cast doubt on its provenance, linked it to Russian disinformation, and made no public attempt to obtain and verify it.

But buried 1,200 words into a story this week about a federal probe into the president's son, the Gray Lady admitted to an astonishing U-turn.

Reporters referenced emails 'obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr.

Biden in a Delaware repair shop', adding that they 'were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation. In the event you adored this information and also you want to receive details regarding up-skirt xxx (https://wwv.mp3juices.link) generously check out our own site. '

Last March, DailyMail.com hired top cyber forensics experts at Maryman & Associates to examine the hard drive to determine its authenticity.

Since then, DailyMail.com has revealed a series of troubling stories based on the scandalous material from the laptop that go to the heart of the FBI's probe into Hunter's alleged dodged taxes, foreign lobbying and suspected money laundering.

Over the past year we have published stories including:

• Joe Biden entertained Hunter's Mexican billionaire business associates in the vice president's office in 2014 and even flew with his son to Mexico City on Air Force 2 so Hunter could attend meetings over a 'flippin gigantic' deal
• Emails contradicting White House denials show that Joe Biden met with Hunter's foreign business partners while he was VP during a dinner organized by his son to introduce potential clients to his powerful father
• Hunter Biden was hired by a Romanian real estate tycoon to overturn his bribery conviction through a massive propaganda campaign with help from VP Joe's government connections and former FBI director Louis Freeh
• Freeh gave $100,000 to a private trust for Joe's grandchildren and spoke with the then vice president in 2016 'to explore lucrative future work options' with Hunter as the middle man
• Hunter's close relationship with Blue Star consulting firm under federal investigation for its involvement with controversial Ukrainian gas company Burisma
• Hunter was deeply involved with a firm at the center of a scheme to defraud Native Americans from millions of dollars, despite later distancing himself
• How Hunter and his father paid each other's bills and even shared bank accounts, raising the prospect of the president being embroiled in the FBI probe
• How Hunter repeatedly dodged police action against him, despite constantly dealing with drug pushers and prostitutes and having multiple run-ins with law enforcement
• Five members of the Biden family have been to rehab for drug or alcohol abuse 

In October 2020, the New York Post reported that the laptop's hard drive contained a cache of emails, texts, photos and documents between Hunter Biden, his family and his business associates.

The correspondence detailed how Hunter used his father's vice presidency as leverage in overseas business dealings.

Both Facebook and Twitter blocked users from sharing the original bombshell report, and Democrats all the way up to the White House suggested that the laptop could be part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Emails specifically related to Biden's time serving on the $50,000-a-month board seat on Ukrainian energy firm Burisma were first reported by the Post, and Democrats claimed the laptop was likely part of some Russian disinformation campaign.

The laptop repair shop owner reported the FBI after making a copy of its hard drive. The FBI seized the laptop and its hard drive.

Prosecutors have examined emails between Biden and business associates related to Burisma that were recovered from the laptop, the Times reports.
Some of the correspondence in question was between Hunter and his business colleague Devon Archer, who also served on the board.

Prosecutors have already interviewed Archer and subpoenaed him for documents and grand testimony. He was sentenced last month in an unrelated securities fraud case.

Those emails, which the Times looked at as well, 'appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr.

Biden in a Delaware repair shop.' People familiar with the investigation confirmed the emails' authenticity to the Times.

Other contents of the laptop, obtained by DailyMail.com detail how the first son would, in a drug-induced stupor, often blow tens of thousands of dollars on drugs and prostitutes.

The Times report also reveals that the younger Biden paid off a tax liability of $1 million, and that he told and associate he had to take out a loan to do so, one year after he revealed he was under investigation by the Department of Justice for tax fraud.

Asked by DailyMail.com about the New York Times report, White House press secretary Jen Psaki stonewalled.

'I point you to the the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden's representatives. I'm a spokesperson for the United States. He doesn't work for the United States.'

'Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki wrote in October 2020, linking to a Politico story.

While wiping out his debts won't spare him from possible criminal charges, the payoff could make it harder for prosecutors to win a conviction or a long sentencing for the crime.

Judges and juries can be more sympathetic to defendants who have paid off their debts.

But the investigation also extends broadly into how Hunter's business career may have been tied to his last name, and investigators have looked into his relationships with business interests in Kazakhstan, a Chinese energy conglomerate, Burisma and more.

The probe is searching for criminal violations of tax laws, as well as foreign lobbying and money laundering rules.

So far, Biden has not been charged with any crime.

People familiar with the investigation said prosecutors had looked into payments and gifts Biden and his associates received from foreign interests, including a car paid for by a company related to a Kazakh oligarch and a diamond paid for by a Chinese energy tycoon, the Times reports.