The saga of Hunter Biden’s laptop is a perfect Rorschach test for America’s divided politics. For several years, half the country has been captivated by its salacious contents, while the other half cringes whenever the topic arises, or has ignored it altogether. Personally, I’ve always leaned to the latter camp—that is, until just this past week, when the president’s son led me down the proverbial rabbit hole. 

The drama began in 2019 when Hunter failed to retrieve his laptop from a Delaware repair shop. Mac Isaac, the shop’s owner, began snooping around the device as he watched Fox News rail about Hunter’s shady dealings in Ukraine. Amazed by his findings, Isaac reached out to the F.B.I., then got in contact with various Congressional staffers, and finally—and most explosively—alerted the office of Rudy Giuliani, then representing Donald Trump. As copies of the hard drive started circulating—Steve Bannon alerted The New York Post—the laptop’s secrets began to seep into public: correspondence related to Hunter’s foreign business dealings, risqué sex and drug videos, bank statements, psychiatric reports, etcetera.