WILMINGTON, Delaware — Hunter Biden’s controversial laptop took center stage in his federal firearms trial Tuesday as one of the witnesses, FBI Agent Erika Jensen, confirmed its authenticity.

“This is the laptop that was recovered from the computer store,” she said, referring to the laptop that Hunter Biden left at The Mac Shop in Wilmington in 2019, that was later shared with Robert Costello, an attorney for Trump ally Rudy Giuliani.

When asked how she was able to confirm the laptop’s authenticity, Ms. Jensen said the serial number on the back of the laptop matches the serial number provided in Apple Inc.’s response to a subpoena for records.

Prosecutors highlighted text messages stored on the laptop in which Hunter Biden wrote about being addicted to drugs or trying to purchase drugs. He is accused of lying on a gun application by saying he was not a drug addict when he purchased a revolver in October 2018, and his defense lawyers have suggested he might have been in denial about his addiction.

Hunter Biden and allies of his dad, President Biden, have long disputed the laptop’s authenticity. More than 50 former intelligence officials signed a letter claiming the laptop story “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” 

A pair of IRS whistleblowers testified before Congress last year that the FBI had verified the abandoned laptop’s authenticity in November 2019.

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Despite their claims, Hunter Biden insisted that the laptop’s contents were fabricated, hacked, stolen or manipulated. But prosecutors pushed back on that ahead of the trial, saying Hunter Biden offered no evidence to back up those claims.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.