Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, boards Air Force One with the president, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, N.Y. Biden is traveling to Camp David in Maryland after visiting with family members following the passing of Michael Hunter, the brother of the president’s first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Hunter Biden filed a lawsuit against the Delaware computer repairman who controversially turned over an abandoned laptop that appeared to contain a large amount of personal data concerning President Joe Biden’s son to conservative activists in the weeks leading up to the 2020 election.
The 42-page counterclaim was filed in Delaware federal court on Friday and names John Paul Mac Isaac as the defendant. Mac Isaac has long claimed that the laptop was dropped off at his repair shop, the Mac Shop, by a man who identified himself as Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden is suing Mac Isaac on six counts of invasion of privacy over the circumstances that led to the data from the laptop being spread far and wide across the internet and in certain publications.
“[N]o matter how they came into his initial possession, Mac Isaac improperly accessed files that he admits were ‘none of [his] business’ even though he was never given permission by Mr. Biden to access or review any data of Mr. Biden’s,” the lawsuit says.
The filing goes on to allege that the data was shared with various individuals – including relatives of the repairman, Giuliani’s own attorney Robert Costello, and Steve Bannon. Additionally, the filing says that “likely several copies” of the laptop’s contents were made. All of this was done, the counterclaim insists, without the owner’s permission.
“Mac Isaac’s knowing and intentional distribution of Mr. Biden’s personal and sensitive data was not carried out for any reasonable or legitimate purposes, but rather to try and expose Mr. Biden’s data to those that he knew or should have known would intend to create embarrassment and harm for Mr. Biden,” the lawsuit continues. “In addition, Mac Isaac decided to use the data in his possession for commercial purposes and to make money, which he has done by including portions of the data in his book and making reference to and/or making some or all of the data available at appearances he has made.”
That laptop made its way to the FBI and later Donald Trump’s scandal-clad attorney Rudy Giuliani, who eventually turned over the data contained on its hard drives to the New York Post. An exposé by the Post ran in October 2020, featuring some emails obtained from the laptop, which purported to show that the elder Biden was engaged in corrupt business dealings. Various social media companies, however, banned the promotion of that article on their networks.
Mac Issac eventually sued Twitter, claiming their decision to lock The New York Post‘s account as the paper’s staffers “attempted to post and disseminate its exposé [about the lurid contents of the laptop] on the social media platform” was akin to calling him a hacker because Twitter cited its rationale for the time-limited ban as a violation of Twitter’s rules against “distribution of hacked material.”
That effort went nowhere for the computer repairman and the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice. Mac Issaac was also ordered to pay Twitter’s attorney’s fees over the legal imbroglio.
On Oct. 17, 2022, Mac Isaac filed another lawsuit against CNN, Politico, Daily Beast, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Hunter Biden in a Delaware state court; the lawsuit was moved to federal court earlier this month.
The first amended complaint filed by Mac Isaac says he never personally authorized the disclosure of the laptop’s contents to the Post. The filing accuses each of the named defendants of defamation for allegedly smearing him as part of a Russian-directed disinformation campaign.
Biden’s full counter-lawsuit is available below:
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