Hunter Biden’s legal team went on the offensive Wednesday, demanding state and federal investigations into the dissemination of his personal material — allegedly from his laptop — and threatened a defamation lawsuit against Fox News’ Tucker Carlson for allegedly failing to correct false statements.
The flurry of letters to the Delaware attorney general, the Justice Department, the IRS and lawyers for Fox News and Carlson represents an aggressive new strategy by the president’s son, who faces a long federal criminal investigationand the promised new probe congressional republicansAccording to sources familiar with Biden’s approach.
“This marks a new approach for Hunter Biden and his team,” the source told CBS News. “He will not sit idly by as problematic people continue to violate his rights while media organizations spread lies trying to defame him.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyers are calling on Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings and Assistant U.S. Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olson to file charges against former computer repair shop owner John Paul Mack Isaac , former Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani and Stephen Bannon, whose attorney Robert Costello and others “had good reason to believe they were accessing, copying, manipulating and/or disseminating Deng’s personal computer data violated various Delaware laws.”
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abe Lowell, said in a statement to CBS News that the letters “do not corroborate the alleged laptop version of Mike Isaac or anyone else.”
“They addressed their quest, manipulation, and dissemination of what they claimed to be Mr. Biden’s personal data, no matter where they claimed to have obtained it,” Lowell said.
John Paul McIsaac’s attorney, Brian Della Rocca, told CBS News, “I hadn’t seen the letters until now, and I haven’t had much opportunity to look at them. After reading these letters, the only thing I see is the privilege of hiring another high-priced lawyer to divert attention from his own illegal actions.” Della Rocca said he had no other comment at this time.
The Delaware attorney general did not respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment. CBS News also reached out to Fox News for comment.
A spokesman for Giuliani described the laptop as “abandoned property under the control of John McIsaac.”
“Raising concerns after so many years shows that the text and video on Hunter’s laptop was truly damaging,” said spokesman Ted Goodman, who claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop had evidence of corruption. “This is clearly an attempt to silence the mayor of America.”
According to Mike Isaac, Hunter Biden dropped the computer off at a Delaware store for repairs in April 2019 and never returned to pick it up. He said he waited the 90 days required by the store’s customer service policy before considering giving up the laptop. In court documents, Mac Isaac said he turned over the computer to the FBI, but also provided Costello with a copy of the computer’s contents.
Copies of the laptop were allegedly widely disseminated by Republican operatives to attack then-candidate Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential election, the New York Post published a series of reports based on computer data.
“This failed dirty political maneuver led directly to the exposure, exploitation and manipulation of Mr. Biden’s private and personal information,” Lowell wrote to Jennings and Olson.
Giuliani and Bannon’s attorney, Costello, has previously defended their efforts to promote the laptops and said Giuliani “has repeatedly offered hard drives to FBI agents, only to have the agents firmly refuse.” In October 2020, Giuliani turned over the drive to Delaware authorities, who in turn turned it over to the FBI.
In an email to CBS News, Costello said Lowell’s letter to the Justice Department and the Delaware attorney general “constitutes a frivolous legal complaint that seeks to intimidate.”
“The letters exude an air of desperation because they realize that Judgment Day is coming,” Costello said, adding that the computer was abandoned by Hunter Biden and became the property of Mike Isaac.
The computer data turned over to the FBI showed no evidence of tampering or falsification, according to an intelligence source. Independent review commissioned by CBS News.
But Lowell cites media reports stating that “[m]More recently, purported downstream recipients of Mr. Biden’s hard drives have reported data anomalies that suggest data manipulation. “
Among the people Hunter Biden wants to investigate is former Trump administration aide Garrett Ziegler, who was also the subject of a letter from Lowell to Robert Malone, director of the IRS tax-exempt organization . A limited liability company tied to Ziegler that runs Marco Polo, a nonprofit that says it is dedicated to “exposing corruption,” has focused its attention on Biden’s laptop.
Lowell wrote that Marco Polo was “nothing more than a slightly disguised political operation to attack the Biden administration and the Biden family.”
Ziegler told CBS News in a statement that “the letter to the IRS regarding Marco Polo was filled with speculation and fundamental misunderstandings about the case law surrounding 501(c)(3) organizations.” Hunter and his family’s desperate attempt to draw attention away from their crimes.”
The IRS did not respond to a request for comment.
In a separate letter sent Wednesday, Biden attorney Brian Sullivan asked Fox News and Tucker Carlson to retract a statement during the call that Biden paid “rent” to his father, “which Mr. Carlson implied was essentially is a money laundering scheme to fund President Biden’s lifestyle prior to his election … and alluding to Mr. Biden having unauthorized access to classified documents because of his presence at President Biden’s house.” These claims are false, Sullivan wrote, Carlson continued to make these claims even after others acknowledged it.
The letter, which cites California defamation laws, noted that the Daily Caller website retracted an article that made similar claims.
