After Hunter Biden has long kept a low profile in the affair of his laptop, the son of American President Joe Biden is now increasingly aggressive against central figures in the matter. On Friday, his lawyers filed a countersuit in Delaware District Court against John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of the Delaware computer store where Hunter Biden returned the laptop in 2019. He had violated Biden's privacy by copying and distributing his personal information.
Sofia Dreisbach
North American political correspondent based in Washington.
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Hunter Biden had the "more than legitimate expectation" that his data would not be accessed, copied or put on the Internet "so that others can use it against him or his family or the public can see it". Mac Issac intended or should have known that the people to whom he provided the information would use it against Joe Biden and in support of then-President Donald Trump.
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Mac Isaac had claimed in his previous defamation lawsuit that Hunter Biden had defamed the shopkeeper for years by claiming that the laptop did not belong to him or that his data had been hacked. Mac Isaac's lawyers insist that he became the rightful owner of the laptop after 90 days after the device was not collected.
Mac Isaac had found on the laptop, among other things, information on the business of Hunter Biden in Ukraine, which he passed on to the lawyer of Trump confidant Rudy Giuliani. Through this, the information was finally leaked to the "New York Post" and made public shortly before the 2020 presidential election.
The tabloid, citing an email about an alleged meeting between Joe Biden and a board member of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, which was also headed by Hunter Biden, claimed that the vice president had abused his jurisdiction over Ukraine in favor of his son. Joe Biden denied at the time that such a meeting had taken place.
On the laptop were also personal photos of Hunter Biden, which allegedly show him using drugs or naked, and which are now circulating on the Internet. The week before last, Trump shared a video of the naked Hunter Biden on his network "Truth Social" and wrote that the "laptop from hell" uncovered "massive crimes of Joe and Hunter". Then he lamented a "witch hunt" of his person in contrast to investigations in this matter.
However, Republicans have made investigations into the president and his family their top priority, with the newly won majority in the House of Representatives. A committee of inquiry is to determine whether Biden "endangered national security at the expense of the American people." Hunter Biden's lawyers had called on the Justice Department shortly before the first committee meeting to take action against those who had accessed and disseminated his private data.