Attorneys for Hunter Biden have filed a suit against Garrett Ziegler, who has been publishing emails and photos allegedly from Hunter Biden’s now infamous laptop, alleging that he violated California state and federal computer fraud laws in doing so.
The suit, filed in California, specifically accuses Ziegler and a non-profit organization he runs called Marco Polo, of violating the California Computer Data Access and Fraud Act and the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
On the Marco Polo website, Ziegler published tens of thousands of emails, photos and videos purportedly from the laptop. Similar to Hunter Biden’s lawsuit against laptop repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac, the suit against Ziegler does not admit the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden but does assert the data belongs to him.
The lawsuit also accuses Ziegler of hacking an encrypted backup of Hunter Biden’s iPhone that was on the laptop, something he seemingly admitted to doing during a December 2022 interview.
Mac Isaac, who says he first gave the laptop to the FBI and later to former President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, has also sued Hunter Biden, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and two US media outlets for defamation and civil conspiracy. Both lawsuits are pending.
Ziegler is a former Trump aide who worked under trade adviser Peter Navarro. The lawsuit describes him as “a zealot who has waged a sustained, unhinged and obsessed campaign against [Hunter Biden] and the entire Biden family for more than two years.”
The information allegedly found on the laptop was first reported on by the New York Post in October 2020, just weeks before the presidential election which saw Hunter Biden’s father, Joe Biden, win the White House from Trump. At the time, the information was decried by media outlets as “hacked” materials and possible Russian disinformation. Its dissemination was banned or limited by several major social media websites.
During the “Twitter Files” release, it was revealed the FBI prepped social and traditional media executives to dismiss a story involving Hunter Biden’s laptop as a Russian disinformation campaign. FBI agent Elvis Chan would later admit to Congress that the agency had no evidence to back that accusation.
Ziegler told US media that he and his company have not yet been served with the lawsuit.
“I nor the nonprofit, Marco Polo, have been served with any lawsuit — but the one I read this morning out of the Central District of California should embarrass Winston & Strawn LLP,” Ziegler wrote. “It’s not worth the paper it’s written on. 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 California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CCCDAFA) is designed to prosecute hackers. It forbids individuals that “accesses and without permission takes, copies, or makes use of any data from a computer, computer system, or computer network, or takes or copies any supporting documentation, whether existing or residing internal or external to a computer, computer system, or computer network,” with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or commit a crime.
However, the law is not clear on who owns the data contained within the laptop. According to Delaware law, where the laptop was reportedly left, abandoned property belongs to the individual tasked with caring for it after reasonable attempts to contact the original owner have been made. But the law is less clear if that would limit ownership to the laptop itself, or if it would include the data contained within.
Hunter Biden is still facing federal prosecution related to the materials allegedly found on his laptop. Prosecutors and attorneys for the president’s son had agreed to a plea deal that would have allowed him to plea to two misdemeanor tax charges and complete a probationary period to avoid jail time and a felony gun charge, but the deal fell apart in court. Gun and tax charges are expected to be filed against Hunter Biden later this month.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced on Tuesday that he will authorize an informal impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, looking into potential and alleged influence peddling by Joe and Hunter Biden.
In addition to the salacious photos of the first son smoking what appears to be crack cocaine and fornicating with suspected sex workers, the trove of data allegedly found on the laptop also includes hundreds of emails including Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates and financial records that show Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family were paid tens of millions of dollars by foreign companies.