Hunter Biden Wednesday sued Garrett Ziegler, a White House aide during the Trump administration, for allegedly sharing private data from a laptop computer.
The lawsuit pertains to the release of private photos, emails and other content sourced from a hard drive that is claimed to have belonged to Hunter Biden.
Biden’s legal action would seem to put to bed administration claims that reports of the laptop left at a Delaware computer repair shop was “Russian disinformation.”
The lawsuit conforms to the approach previously indicated by Biden’s legal team, which aims to take legal action against those perceived to be launching attacks on the president’s son.
Ziegler, a former aide to Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, operates a website dedicated in part to exposing elements of Hunter Biden’s past, according to a CBS News report.
The website includes links to photos, text messages, emails and documents allegedly from the president’s son.
The 14-page legal complaint accuses Ziegler and other unnamed parties of infringing upon federal and California privacy regulations.
Ziegler is accused of “accessing, tampering with, manipulating, altering, copying and damaging computer data” from Biden’s laptop and iPhone cloud storage without obtaining permission.
The legal document elaborates on how Ziegler and the unnamed defendants supposedly procured sensitive content by breaching encrypted data on Hunter Biden’s devices.
This data was uploaded to Ziegler’s site, the CBS report noted, where it is still accessible.
Hunter Biden’s legal team claims in the lawsuit that the defendants have ignored pleas to “cease their unlawful activity” and to return private data that belongs to the president’s son.
“I nor the nonprofit, Marco Polo, have been served with a lawsuit — but the one I read this morning out of the Central District of California should embarrass Winston & Strawn LLP,” Ziegler responded.
“It’s not worth the paper it’s written on.” he added. “Apart from the numerous state and federal laws and regulations which protect authors like me and the publishing that Marco Polo does, it’s not lost on us that Joe’s son filed this SLAPP one day after an Impeachment inquiry into his father was announced.”
“The president’s son is a disgrace to our great nation.”
The acronym SLAPP is shorthand for “strategic lawsuit against public participation.”
Several states, including California, impose penalties for initiating a lawsuit with the intent to suppress the rights to petition and freedom of speech.
Hunter Biden filed a lawsuit earlier this year against John Paul Mac Isaac, a computer repair professional based in Delaware.
That lawsuit also alleged invasion of privacy due to unauthorized access and distribution of Biden’s private computer data in 2019, according to the report.
Biden’s attorneys also asked the Justice Department to investigate Isaac, Ziegler and others for allegedly breaking Delaware laws by disseminating data from Biden’s personal device, the report noted.
Isaac maintains he legally acquired the information from Biden’s laptop. He claims Biden left the laptop with him in April 2019 and never reclaimed it. He waited 90 days and then deemed the laptop abandoned.
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