Attorneys representing Hunter Biden filed a countersuit against the computer repairman who worked on the laptop Biden left in his Delaware shop, alleging invasion of privacy, according to court filings.
The case was filed against repairman John Paul Mac Isaac who obtained Biden’s laptop in April 2019 and later disseminated data from the laptop to others.
“The unauthorized accessing and dissemination of Mr. Biden’s data is offensive and objectionable to Mr. Biden, and would be highly offensive and objectionable to any reasonable person as they would not expect a computer repairman to copy and disseminate the private and confidential contents of someone’s data,” the lawsuit says.
“The object of invading Mr. Biden’s privacy and disseminating his data was not for any legitimate purpose but to cause harm and embarrassment to Mr. Biden,” the suit added.
The counterclaim is in response to a defamation lawsuit filed by Mac Isaac against Hunter Biden and others including media outlets, in October 2019. That case is still ongoing.
Mac Isaac argued that Biden defamed him by saying he had illegally accessed the data since the external hard drive became his property when Hunter failed to retrieve the items within 90 days after leaving them at the shop.
However, lawyers for Biden argued that is not the case.
“Contrary to Mac Isaac’s Repair Authorization form, Delaware law provides that tangible personal property is deemed abandoned” when the rightful owner has failed to “assert or declare property rights to the property for a period of 1 year,” Biden’s lawyers said in the filing.
Biden’s attorneys said additional steps should have been taken to declare Mac Isaac the owner of the laptop “such as the court sending notice to the owner and the petitioner posting notice in five or more public places, and advertising the petition in a newspaper.”
In 2020, the New York Post first published emails it claimed belonged to Biden. Since then, several right wing outlets have published explicit videos, photos and documents they claimed to have obtained from the laptop.
Biden hasn’t publicly claimed ownership of the laptop.
Biden is seeking a jury trial and unspecified “compensatory damages” from Mac Isaac.
