My name is John Paul Mac Isaac. This is my opportunity to clear things up...

My name is John Paul Mac Isaac. Initially, I was reluctant to tell the media about my family’s involvement with reaching out to the FBI. My efforts to protect my family from the press ultimately were used by the press to discredit me and discredit my account of my interactions with the FBI. This is my opportunity to clear things up.

(Male Reporter): See that’s what we were talking about earlier. You did something; you made some action that tipped the FBI off… Or maybe you didn’t. Maybe Hunter Biden told the FBI, which I doubt.
(Female Reporter): I’m also confused because you told me that you did reach out to the FBI and that they didn’t really do much with it. So was it that they came to you or you went to them?
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By the end of the summer, and feeling pressured by the events of the news, I turned to one of the smartest and most trusted people I know: my father. During a return trip from a gun ship reunion in Salt Lake City, I had ample time to explain to my father what I had seen and voice my concerns.

We decided that the best course of action was to contact the FBI and persuade them to collect the abandoned equipment to provide some level of security should someone come looking for it. We decided, out of an abundance of caution, that my father would reach out to the FBI through their Albuquerque, New Mexico field office, and, hopefully, get a feeling of how receptive they would be to helping us.

So on October 9, 2019, my father walked into the FBI office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and spoke to an agent—this is what my father, a retired colonel of thirty years in the United States Air Force, described to me [as] the most humiliating experience of his entire life. My father spoke to an agent that refused to give his name. Then, that agent, after hearing my father’s concerns, promptly made a copy of the paperwork, told my father to lawyer up, and get out of his office. Defeated, my father and I spent the next three weeks wondering what we were going to do.

And then, on November 1, my father received a phone call. On November 1, 2019, Agent Joshua from the FBI reached out to my father, requesting to contact me. My father collected his contact information and passed it on to me. A quick Google search revealed that Agent Joshua had been making a name for himself busting child predators. I instantly trusted and respected Agent Joshua and instructed my father to pass along my contact information.

Soon, Agent Joshua called and requested a time to meet and talk about my concerns. I agreed and on November 21, 2019, Agent Joshua arrived at my home with an additional agent, Agent Mike. When seated in my living room, Agent Joshua asked if I had seen any child pornography on the client’s laptop. I responded that I had seen a lot of questionable material but I wasn’t paying that close of attention to see if there were children involved, but it was a concern based on the personal and private nature of the material.

When asked what I was concerned about, I told them it was the personal material as well as financial and political information that could be criminal or illegal and it should be in the hands of the authorities. I was also concerned about individuals, both foreign and domestic, that might seek to do me harm based on what I knew and what I was in possession of—and I just wanted it out of my shop.

They told me that they’d have to contact their legal team to see if this was something that they could take possession of, but they could not make any promises. Agent Mike texted me and requested a timeline of the events leading up to me reaching out to the FBI. I responded and awaited further instructions.

About a week later, agents advised me that they wanted to come into the shop to make a forensic copy of the laptop but, unfortunately, they would be unable to take possession or custody of the laptop at that time. A little disappointed, and a little reluctant, I agreed to meet them at the shop on December 9, 2019.

I first received a phone call in the morning around 9:50 from Agent Mike requesting that I text him the serial number of the hard drive that the client had abandoned. Both agents arrived at the shop at around 11 a.m. Agent Joshua immediately handed me a subpoena commanding me to appear before a Grand Jury. A note in the middle of the first page stated, “In lieu of personal appearance, please see Attachment A.” Attachment A included two items: the MacBook Pro with the serial number and the external hard drive with the serial number that was requested an hour earlier.

I was ecstatic. I was getting everything that I wanted. I was getting protection from the FBI. I felt safe. I finally was getting this abandoned laptop and its questionable data out of my shop. And, if there was evidence there, that it was finally in the hands of proper authorities.

For the first time in months, I was at ease—and I thought that this whole ordeal might finally be over.