CNN
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Lawyers for Hunter Biden on Wednesday asked state and federal agencies to investigate computer repair shop owner Rudy Giuliani and several right-wing political figures involved in the release of the contents of his laptop, alleging they committed computer and other criminal offenses in an attempt to “weaponize” the contents of the laptop against his father.
The allegations, made in letters to the Delaware attorney general, the Justice Department’s National Security Division and the IRS, are the first time President Joe Biden’s son and his legal team have publicly acknowledged that his personal data was allegedly found on the laptop. left at Delaware repair shop. However, his legal team said their new information did not confirm the laptop narrative that had been circulated on the right.
The letters signal a marked change in strategy for Hunter Biden after bringing in new lawyers to help defend him against attacks from Republicans who have tried to use his personal battle with drugs and congressional investigations into his business dealings to attack the president. Hunter Biden also faces an ongoing federal criminal investigation focused on tax and other matters.
In addition to letters to government agencies, Biden’s lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to Fox News and network host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, asking them to retract a story on Carlson’s show that Biden’s team says is false. CNN has reached out to Fox News for comment.
In a letter to Delaware Attorney General Katie Jennings, Hunter Biden’s attorneys accuse computer repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac of gaining unauthorized access to a laptop and distributing its contents to the New York Post for a story published weeks before the 2020 election. Mack Isaacs has said in his memoirs and media interviews that he received the laptop in his store from Hunter Biden in 2019.
“This failed dirty political trick directly resulted in the disclosure, use and manipulation of Mr. Biden’s private and personal information. Mr. Mac Isaac’s willful, reckless, and illegal actions allowed hundreds of gigabytes of Mr. Biden’s personal data to be spread across the Internet without discretion,” writes Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s attorney, in the letter.
The letter calls for investigations into Garrett Ziegler, John Paul Mac Isaac, Robert Costello, Rudy Giuliani and Stephen Bannon.
MacIsaac’s attorney, Brian R. Della Rocca, confirmed receipt of the letter and said that after reading it, he saw only “a privileged person hiring another expensive lawyer to distract from his own illegal activities.” Costello called it a “legally frivolous document” and accused Biden’s new legal team of trying to intimidate people. Giuliani’s communications adviser, Ted Goodman, called the letters “a clear attempt at silence.” CNN has reached out to all other individuals or their attorneys for comment.
The Justice Department declined to comment, and CNN has also reached out to the IRS and Delaware’s attorney general.
In the years since the existence of the laptop first became public knowledge, Hunter Biden has sought to question the origin of his personal information that allegedly came from the laptop. It appears to contain a vast trove of information, detailing business documents, emails and photos, among other things, including some potentially salacious material.
“I may have had my laptop stolen,” Hunter Biden said in a 2021 interview with CBS while promoting his memoir. “It could be that I was hacked. It could be that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me.
On Wednesday, Biden’s lawyer, Lowell, said the new letters from Biden’s team “do not confirm the Mac Isaac or other versions of the so-called laptop.”
“They are addressing their actions by seeking, manipulating and distributing what they believe to be Mr. Biden’s personal data, regardless of where they claim to have obtained it,” Lowell said in a statement to CNN.
Mac Isaac has said he bought the laptop in April 2019 when Hunter Biden took the laptop to his shop for repairs.
Biden signed a contract with Mac Isaac that included a policy that if the laptop was not picked up within 90 days, it would become the property of Mac Isaac, according to the repair shop owner’s book. Mac Isaac writes that Biden never returned for the laptop.
But by his own admission, Mac Isaacs said he reviewed the files on Hunter Biden’s laptop the day after it was handed over. In his book, Mac Isaac said that the day after Hunter Biden left his laptop, he noticed a file on his hard drive called “income.pdf,” which apparently tracks Biden’s finances.
According to Mac Isaac, FBI agents issued a subpoena and seized the laptop on December 9, 2019.
According to Giuliani’s attorney Robert Costello, in late August or early September 2020, a copy of the hard drive was sent to one of Giuliani’s company addresses. Giuliani eventually sent a copy of the hard drive to the New York Post.
Giuliani told The Wall Street Journal in October 2020 that he had “every right to use” the hard drive.
The research team, led by Garrett Ziegler, a former aide to Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro, posted emails and documents believed to be from Hunter’s laptop on a publicly available website. According to Politico, Ziegler said he received a copy of the laptop through Giuliani and Bernard Carrick, a former New York police commissioner and Giuliani associate.
The website where Ziegler’s Marco Polo group posted the alleged contents of the laptop reads a disclaimer: “Marco Polo indicates that the contents of Biden’s laptop were abandoned property.”
In an April 2021 CBS interview, Hunter Biden said he had “no idea if the laptop was his or not,” but said it was possible. When asked if he had ever dropped off his laptop to be repaired in Delaware, Hunter Biden said he had not.
“Not that I remember at all,” he added.
This story has been updated with additional information.
