emptywheelI've pulled together what we can learn from the October 22, 2020 CYA memo on the Hunter Biden laptop. Hoping some tech folks, esp @malwarejake and @matthew_d_green can review it to see if they can figure out why FBI had to install laptop hard drive in new laptop to get an image of it.
Chris Bussard@emptywheel @malwarejake @matthew_d_green
[Continued]
Is it possible that the memo author took it for granted that "everyone knows" the above and skipped over it? Mounting a copy of a copy of the original hard drive in a new laptop and then booting *that* would probably be a convenient way to browse the user's files.
The only other possibility I can fathom is that the FBI was profoundly incompetent here.
@cwbussard The memo author doesn't know how to spell Cellebrite and calls the one computer expert in the room "computer guy."
And the memo notes real difficulties for actually browsing files--plus there were concerns about the Cellebrite report access.
@emptywheel @malwarejake @matthew_d_green
Hmmmm.... Is it possible that the memo author couldn't understand what "computer guy" was saying, and so the memo reflects its author's wildly inaccurate understanding of what "computer guy" did?
(Playing devil's advocate here. The "profoundly incompetent" hypothesis seems more likely.)
@cwbussard Absolutely! That's why I keep harping about the way he spells Cellebrite.
But that's why AUSA Lesley Wolf's apparent shared understanding of the process is important. She knows more details of the process and probably knows how to spell Cellebrite.