Hunter Biden is suing Rudy Giuliani for the “total annihilation” of his digital privacy and data, filing a civil suit over the former mayor’s involvement in disseminating information he purported to be from Biden’s laptop.
“Defendants are among those who have been primarily responsible for what has been described as the ‘total annihilation’ of Plaintiff’s digital privacy,” Biden’s attorneys wrote in the suit.
“For the past many months and even years, Defendants have dedicated an extraordinary amount of time and energy toward looking for, hacking into, tampering with, manipulating, copying, disseminating, and generally obsessing over data that they were given that was taken or stolen from Plaintiff’s devices or storage platforms, including what Defendants claim to have obtained from Plaintiff’s alleged ‘laptop’ computer,’” they wrote, noting the data actually came from a hard drive.
The suit, filed in California, alleged that Giuliani violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as a California law dealing with data access and fraud. The suit would leave it to a jury to determine damages and would also seize any profits made by disseminating Biden’s data.
Robert Costello, a former attorney for Giuliani who has recently sued the former mayor to recoup legal fees, is also named in the suit.
The suit is the latest in the laptop saga, which has sent personal details of Biden, including sensitive photos, to be distributed on the internet.
While Biden stops short of taking ownership of all the contents in their possession, he acknowledges some of the data is his and accuses Giuliani and Costello of manipulating his data and continuing to disperse it.
“Plaintiff has demanded Defendants Giuliani and Costello cease their unlawful activities with respect to Plaintiff’s data and return any data in their possession belonging to Plaintiff, but they have refused to do so. Defendants’ statements suggest that their unlawful hacking activities are ongoing today and that, unless stopped, will continue into the future, thereby necessitating this action,” Biden’s team wrote.
The suit is the latest from Biden, who has been more aggressive in fighting those who have accused him of wrongdoing. Earlier this month he sued former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler with similar claims and also recently sued the IRS, claiming two whistleblowers from the agency unlawfully released his personal tax information.
And it’s also another blow for Giuliani, who is battling multiple defamation suits and has also been charged in a sweeping election interference case in Georgia.
Giuliani has for years claimed to have all manner of damaging information that could be gleaned from Biden’s laptop, including details on Biden’s business dealings that could lead back to his father.
But the drive, which was obtained from the owner of a Mac repair shop in Delaware where it was never reclaimed by Biden, has been reproduced numerous times, the suit alleges, with Giuliani and Costello damaging the underlying data as they sought to alter it.
“For the past many months Defendant Giuliani has spent many hours hacking into and manipulating data that he claims to have been obtained from Plaintiff, making copies of the data for himself and others to access and analyze, and further altering, impairing and damaging the data through his unlawful hacking and manipulation,” the suit states.
“In public interviews and media appearances and during podcasts, Defendant Giuliani has not only admitted but bragged about downloading data from Plaintiff’s ‘laptop’ (even though he only had a hard drive) onto his own computer; about using his own computer to access, tamper with and manipulate the downloaded data; and about maintaining multiple copies of the data for his and Defendant Costello’s personal use.”
Costello did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Giuliani, on X, called Biden’s case a “hypothetical and frivolous action” and said it “should be dismissed for lack of standing with costs and damages to Defendants.”
The suit seeks to cast doubt on some of the contents Giuliani obtained, with Biden arguing the data has been manipulated to the point it’s unclear what was originally on the drive.
“Discovery is needed to determine exactly what data of Plaintiff Defendants received, when they received it, and the extent to which it was altered, manipulated and damaged both before and after receipt,” the suit states.
Biden has stopped short of claiming the laptop obtained by the shop was his, but acknowledged some of the contents on the hard drive were his.
“This is not an admission by Plaintiff that John Paul Mac Isaac (or others) in fact possessed any particular laptop containing electronically stored data belonging to Plaintiff,” the suit says, naming the owner of the repair shop.
“Rather, Plaintiff simply acknowledges that at some point, Mac Isaac obtained electronically stored data, some of which belonged to Plaintiff.”
Updated at 12:25 p.m. ET