Hunter Biden's lawyers acknowledged for the first time that the laptop found in a Delaware computer repair shop indeed belonged to the president's son, according to The New York Post.
Biden's defense wants to open a criminal investigation into the shop's owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, and other officials who spoke out against the Biden family for the material recovered on the laptop.
In a 14-page letter addressed to Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, the attorneys stated that Mac Isaac "unlawfully" accessed to the data on Hunter Biden's laptop, implicitly admitting that the computer did indeed belong to the president's son. Abbe Lowell, one of Biden's attorneys, noted:
Mr. Mac Isaac’s intentional, reckless, and unlawful conduct allowed for hundreds of gigabytes of Mr. [Hunter] Biden’s personal data, without any discretion, to be circulated around the Internet.
They further argue that the shop owner worked with former President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to "weaponize" the contents discovered on the computer against Joe Biden:
This failed political dirty trick directly resulted in the exposure, exploitation, and manipulation of Mr. [Hunter] Biden's personal data without any discretion, to be circulated around the Internet
Today's cover: New tactic: Hunter Biden is the ‘laptop from hell’ victim https://t.co/S7iCzxiAYJ pic.twitter.com/BLHdNevP3F
— New York Post (@nypost) February 2, 2023
Background on the Hunter Biden laptop
Mac Isaac was in charge of fixing the broken laptop in late 2019. After trying unsuccessfully to locate Hunter Biden for months to pick up the device, he took possession and viewed the contents, which included emails detailing alleged influence peddling involving former Vice President Joe Biden along with videos of Hunter Biden smoking crack and having sex with prostitutes.
The shop owner decided to alert the FBI. The feds picked up the computer in December 2019, but Mac Isaac made a copy and gave it to Giuliani's personal attorney, Robert Costello.
Giuliani was the one who provided The New York Post with a copy of the hard drive in October 2020. That's when the publication began publishing a series of exclusive reports on the laptops' contents. The story, which accuses Hunter Biden of felonies, was eventually censored by major social media platforms, which later acknowledged there was pressure from the government to hide the truth.
The letter acknowledging that the laptop belongs to Hunter Biden
In the letter, Lowell mentions Mac Isaac, Giuliani, Costello, Steve Bannon, Garrett Ziegler, Jack Maxey, Yaacov Apelbaum and Ron Johnson, among others. According to the lawyer, these individuals are guilty of various crimes because they gained unauthorized access to the contents of the computer and disseminated it to the media:
We believe that the facts and circumstances merit further investigation as to whether the conduct of Messrs. Mac Isaac, Costello, Giuliani, Bannon, Ziegler, Maxey, and Apelbaum violated several provisions of Delaware’s criminal code — including, but not necessarily limited to, computer-related property offenses … theft … possession of stolen property … and misapplication of another’s property … Each of these offenses, if violated, has the potential to be a felony, depending on the value of the property in question.
Hunter's attorney also sent letters to the Justice Department's National Security Division and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
"Ridiculous" accusations a sign of "desperation"
Costello told The New York Post that Lowell's accusations were "ridiculous" and a sign of "desperation." In addition, he claims they are based on false premises, since Mac Isaac has a "signed work order that gives [him] authorization to examine the hard drive":
This letter is a ridiculous attempt to intimidate that will not succeed. It is the product of desperation by Hunter Biden because they know judgment day is coming for the Biden family. ... [Mac Isaac has a] signed work order that gives [him] authorization to examine the hard drive and the property is deemed legally abandoned after 90 days. It is the property of John Paul Mac Isaac.
Mac Isaac said it is no coincidence that the letter from Hunter Biden's attorney comes just as House Republicans are poised to open investigations into the president's son:
I think with Congress starting investigations next week, it's a scare tactic. The flak is heaviest when you are over the target!
Hunter Biden and his lawyers repeatedly tried to cast doubt and deny that the computer left in Mac Isaac's store belonged to Biden. The president's son himself told CBS during a 2021 interview:
There could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me. ... It could be that I was hacked. It could be that it was then — that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me.
