Hunter Biden Files Lawsuit Against Rudy Giuliani Over Laptop Data Privacy

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has filed a federal lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani and his attorney, Robert Costello, alleging the unauthorized release and manipulation of personal data from his laptop. This legal action is one of several involving Hunter Biden, including gun-related charges and his lawsuit against the IRS, all occurring during President Biden’s reelection campaign.

The lawsuit accuses Giuliani, a former campaign lawyer for Donald Trump, of extensively reviewing digital information from the laptop before sharing it with reporters and Republican lawmakers in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. Robert Costello, Giuliani’s lawyer, is also implicated in the lawsuit for his alleged involvement in reviewing and disseminating data from the laptop.

Hunter Biden’s legal action comes as the Republican-led House Oversight Committee schedules a hearing in the impeachment inquiry of President Biden, which is partly based on information derived from the laptop. The White House has consistently dismissed the impeachment inquiry as baseless and politically motivated.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles where Hunter Biden currently resides, alleges violations of federal laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as California’s Computer Data Access and Fraud Act and Unfair Competition Law.

The core of the dispute revolves around Hunter Biden’s laptop and its external hard drive, which he left at a Delaware computer repair shop and subsequently abandoned. The shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, claimed ownership of the equipment and later passed it on to the FBI and Rudy Giuliani. Hunter Biden had previously sued Mac Isaac for distributing information from the laptop.

Due to the multiple parties handling the digital information, Hunter Biden has raised concerns about the authenticity of the publicly released data. He contends that “illegal hacking and tampering” have compromised and damaged the data, rendering it unusable for forensic examination.

The lawsuit cites instances where Giuliani and Costello publicly discussed their handling of the laptop’s data, including creating new digital folders with labels such as “Salacious Pics” and “The Big Guy.” Giuliani also admitted to loading data from Hunter Biden’s equipment onto his own computer during his podcast, “Rudy’s Common Sense,” on January 26, 2023, and made a similar claim during the “America’s Mayor Live” podcast on February 2, 2023.

In response to the lawsuit, Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Rudy Giuliani, stated that Hunter Biden had previously denied the laptop’s ownership and questioned the authenticity of the data. Goodman remarked, “I’m not surprised he’s now falsely claiming his laptop hard drive was manipulated by Mayor Giuliani, considering the sordid material and potential evidence of crimes on that thing.”

Hunter Biden’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, a jury trial, and an injunction to halt the distribution of the information.