Lawyers for Hunter Biden have asked the Justice Department to investigate close allies of former US President Donald Trump, who accessed and disseminated personal data from a laptop that was reportedly dropped off by Joe Biden's son at a Delaware computer store in 2019.
In particular, the lawyers are seeking probes into former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, Trump’s longtime lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Giuliani’s own attorney and the Wilmington computer repair shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac.
In a letter released on Wednesday, the attorneys quoted extracts from Isaac’s book, in which he admitted to reviewing private and sensitive material from Hunter Biden’s laptop. The letter claims that Isaac sent a copy of the laptop data to Giuliani’s lawyer, who in turn shared it with Giuliani.
According to the letter, Giuliani then provided the information to a reporter at the New York Post, which first wrote about the laptop, and also to Bannon.
“This failed dirty political trick directly resulted in the exposure, exploitation, and manipulation of Mr. Biden’s private and personal information. Politicians and the news media have used this unlawfully accessed, copied, distributed, and manipulated data to distort the truth and cause harm to Mr. Biden,” the lawyers pointed out.
The content of the laptop, including naked photos and graphic videos of Hunter, is part of the ongoing federal investigation into whether Hunter Biden violated US laws when he engaged in financial and business dealings in foreign countries during his father’s vice presidency between 2009 and 2017.
In addition, federal agents are probing the younger Biden for reportedly obtaining what they claim is “sufficient evidence” to charge the 52-year-old with tax crimes and lying about his drug abuse to buy a gun.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly dismissed any knowledge of his son’s business activities, with most US news outlets and social media companies successfully shielding him from the laptop-related revelations ahead of the 2020 presidential election campaign, when they were written off as part of a “Russian disinformation operation.” In 2022, however, the New York Times and The Washington Post made a U-turn, confirming that the laptop was authentic and that the damning information contained within the device was genuine.