“Have you heard about this [hard drive]?” one of the people recalled the president asking recently. The president made clear this latest salvo against the Bidens had his approval, as Trump has been consistently supportive of his lawyer Giuliani’s efforts on the Joe and Hunter Biden—before, during, and well after the impeachment proceedings.

On Wednesday morning, the New York Post began printing a series of stories, supposedly based on the contents of a hard drive from a laptop computer that Hunter Biden allegedly left at a Wilmington, DE repair shop.

“The president knew [in recent weeks] that Rudy had something big coming on the Biden family,” one of these knowledgeable sources said. “I remember hearing…something about files, and corruption, and something about sex and drugs…It was evident that the president was interested and wanted it done before the election.”

Multiple senior-level officials in Trumpworld, including some on the reelection effort, were aware of a secret dossier or a hard drive regarding salacious and potentially damaging information on Hunter several weeks before the story broke in the Post, two other individuals with direct knowledge tell The Daily Beast. Some officials were eager to keep hitting the Biden family on corruption allegations before Election Day. It is unclear if any of these officials had direct contact with Giuliani about the exact contents of the hard drive.