President’s Son Sues Rudy Giuliani for Revealing Data From a Laptop
WASHINGTON — Presidential son Hunter Biden claims in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that Rudy Giuliani and his former lawyer violated his privacy by publicly revealing personal computer data.
The data was taken from a laptop Biden left at a computer repair shop, where the owner turned over the information to the FBI and Giuliani’s attorney.
Some lawmakers, along with Giuliani, said it revealed nude photos of Hunter Biden and emails showing his overseas business deals in Ukraine and China.
Giuliani was representing former President Donald Trump in his 2020 election campaign against Joe Biden at the time.
The data helped to fuel an ongoing congressional investigation of possible influence peddling by Hunter Biden. Lawmakers say he invoked his father’s name to gain more deals and money.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in California — where Hunter Biden lives now — says Giuliani and his attorney, Bob Costello, perpetrated “total annihilation” of his digital privacy.
It accuses Giuliani and Costello of violating privacy protections in the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as a California law on data access and fraud.
Details of the emails on the laptop were published by The New York Post in October 2020. In addition, Giuliani discussed them in media interviews.
“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,” the lawsuit says.
Biden never acknowledged the laptop was his. He does admit that “some of the data that defendants obtained, copied and proceeded to hack into and tamper with belongs” to him.
He added that the data was altered before it was released publicly in an apparent effort to humiliate him and his father.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction against further distribution of the data, payment of damages and a jury trial.
Giuliani admits he took data from the laptop but says he was pursuing the public interest in discussing it in the media.
In a Jan. 26, 2023, segment of his podcast, “Rudy Giuliani’s Common Sense,” he said he downloaded data from Biden’s laptop onto his own computer, the lawsuit says. Days later, during a Feb. 2, 2023, podcast of “America’s Mayor Live,” Giuliani displayed a laptop he said was Hunter Biden’s and again said he copied data from it onto his own computer, according to the lawsuit.
Giuliani and Costello deny distorting any of the data. Costello said he looked through photos, bank records and emails on the laptop but did not change them.
He said he reorganized some of them into separate digital folders with titles like “Salacious Pics” and “The Big Guy.” The “Big Guy” appears to refer to emails that mention Joe Biden.
The lawsuit is one of the mounting legal problems for Giuliani. He lost one lawsuit this month for defamation of election workers he falsely accused of forging ballots but faces others. One of his former attorneys is suing him for unpaid legal fees.
Giuliani also faces criminal charges for allegedly trying to help Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Biden’s lawsuit represents a more aggressive tactic by the presidential son against his accusers.
In recent weeks, he sued former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler for his alleged role in revealing information from the laptop he left at a Wilmington, Delaware, computer repair shop. He also sued the Internal Revenue Service for alleged privacy violations after two of its agents revealed personal tax information to Congress.
Hunter Biden faces criminal prosecution on charges of misdemeanor tax evasion and illegal gun possession.
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