1 year ago
Hunter Biden on Tuesday sued Rudy Giuliani and his longtime lawyer Robert Costello, alleging they violated federal and California-based computer fraud laws in their efforts to disseminate potentially damaging material.
Biden, the son of the president, says Giuliani and Costello broke the law when they accessed data they claim came from a laptop sent to them by a computer repairman in Delaware in 2020. Biden does not concede that that claim is true. But he alleges that he is the owner of some of the electronic data obtained by the repairman, and he alleges that Giuliani and Costello's repeated copying and accessing of that data amounts to an illegal hacking campaign that persists to this day.
“In light of the foregoing illegal activities by Defendants, their refusals to cease and desist in their unlawful behavior, and their apparent intention to continue violating the law in the future, Plaintiff has no alternative but to commence this lawsuit,” Hunter Biden’s attorneys wrote in the suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles, where the first son lives.
It’s Biden’s latest lawsuit against those he has accused of perpetrating an illegal campaign to disseminate materials taken from a laptop he purportedly abandoned at a Delaware repair shop. Earlier this month, he sued former Donald Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler on similar allegations. He also recently sued the IRS over allegations that two agents violated privacy laws by sharing personal information about his finances — gleaned from their own investigation of Biden — with the media.
Giuliani and his allies have long argued that the purported laptop was fair game because it was allegedly abandoned. But at the heart of the lawsuit is the argument that regardless of where any piece of computer hardware was located, Hunter Biden’s data still belongs to him alone. A member of his legal team, granted anonymity to discuss his newly aggressive legal strategy, put it this way: “If you take your coat to the dry cleaner and leave your wallet in it, and you forget to pick it up, it doesn’t mean the dry cleaner gets the wallet and all your money. It’s just common sense.”
The member of his legal team hinted that more litigation could follow.
“Everyone involved in stealing and manipulating Hunter’s data should be hearing footsteps right about now,” that person said.
Neither Costello nor a spokesperson for Giuliani immediately responded to requests for comment.
The material that Trump allies call “the laptop from hell” has fueled Republican lawmakers’ enthusiasm for probing the president. Less than two weeks ago, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that Republicans have opened an impeachment inquiry of the president.
For Giuliani, Hunter Biden’s lawsuit is the latest in a long string of civil and criminal legal fights that have led to crushing legal bills and a crowded calendar of court dates. A federal judge recently found him liable for defaming two Georgia election workers and scheduled a Dec. 11 trial to determine what he’ll pay them. He’s been indicted alongside Trump in Fulton County, Ga., for efforts related to the 2020 election. He was identified as an unnamed co-conspirator in Trump’s criminal case in Washington D.C., also related to the 2020 election. And he’s being suedby a former employee for alleged sexual and workplace misconduct.
More recently, Costello himself sued Giuliani to recover more than $1 million in unpaid legal bills.
Throughout the lawsuit, Biden seeks to cast doubt on the authenticity of the purported contents of his laptop, emphasizing that Giuliani and Costello have only claimed to have received a hard drive containing the contents of the laptop accessed by the Delaware repairperson.
“[Biden]’s data was manipulated, altered and damaged before it was copied and sent to Defendants; and Defendants’ illegal hacking and tampering has involved further alterations and damages to the data to a degree that is presently unknown to [Biden],” his attorneys wrote.
Biden’s laptop was reportedly found at a repair shop in Wilmington, Del., owned by John Paul Mac Isaac. Mac Isaac sued POLITICO, CNN, Hunter Biden, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and the Biden presidential campaign committee for defamation and civil conspiracy in 2022. The case remains pending in Sussex County, Del.
“This is not an admission by Plaintiff that John Paul Mac Isaac (or others) in fact possessed any particular laptop containing electronically stored data belonging to Plaintiff,” Biden’s new lawsuit says. “Rather, Plaintiff simply acknowledges that at some point, Mac Isaac obtained electronically stored data, some of which belonged to Plaintiff.”
The lawsuit also points to numerous public statements by Giuliani and Costello in which they describe accessing Biden’s data via the hard drive they received. In those statements, they’ve described scrutinizing thousands of emails, financial records, and personal photos.
Biden is seeking monetary damages from Giuliani, his businesses, and Costello, as well as other unnamed defendants who he says may be added later to the lawsuit. He is also seeking an injunction that would bar Giuliani, Costello or their associates from further accessing Biden’s data and returning any other property they obtained from him.
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