Below is my column in the New York Post on the letters sent by Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell calling for criminal investigations, the removal of tax exempt status, and other measures targeting critics and media. It also appears to confirm that the laptop is indeed Hunter’s. However, the next day, Lowell told NBC “These letters do not confirm Mac Isaac’s or others’ versions of a so-called laptop.” It is a curious position when asking for criminal investigations like asking police to look for people who may or may not have stolen a car that may or may not be yours. The defamation and privacy claims suggested in the letter are dubious and ill-defined. However, Hunter is apparently asking for money to pay for his high-priced legal team. It is not clear if these donations would also be used to fund his cruel and craven effort to prevent his daughter from using his surname. Nevertheless, Hunter is outraged that the computer that he abandoned has been used for what his lawyer calls “this failed dirty political trick.”
Here is the column:
Hunter Biden appears to have finally achieved clarity.
Months after The Post’s October 2020 reporting, Biden was warning reporters that his “alleged” laptop might be Russian disinformation — or it might be his. He seemed tortured by doubt in a 2021 CBS News interview: “For real, I don’t know. I don’t have any idea — I have no idea whether or not.”
It now appears he does know “for real.” His lawyers sent letters Wednesday requesting investigations into figures associated with former President Donald Trump who have used information from the laptop. The first son’s sudden shift to the offense follows a meeting of a Legion of Doom of Democratic operatives reportedly planning attacks on potential witnesses against Hunter.
At the same time, Biden agents are planning to create a large legal fund for the next stage. In a city where influence peddling is the leading industry, Hunter’s plight could easily become a cause célèbre. Indeed, there hasn’t been a greater sense of urgency or outpouring of humanity since the Kato Kaelin housing crisis.
The letters to federal and state prosecutors seem to confirm the plan for a scorched-earth strategy. The Biden lawyers accuse people using the laptop contents of possibly violating federal and state laws “in accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data.”
The Biden team is also threatening media that have covered the story, including Fox News, with defamation lawsuits. (For the record, I appear as a legal analyst on Fox News.) And it’s asking the IRS to consider removing the tax-exempt status of groups that used the material such as Marco Polo, a charitable organization run by Garrett Ziegler — in a letter copied to the agency’s criminal investigation unit chief.
The letters raise serious constitutional and political concerns. Critics using publicly available material are allowed to reach their own conclusions about the implications of these files.
The Biden team, for example, threatens a lawsuit against Fox News host Tucker Carlson while demanding a retraction of “false and defamatory statements.” It maintains Carlson falsely portrayed Hunter Biden as involved in a “money laundering scheme to finance President Biden’s lifestyle” by paying him $50,000 a month in rent. It claims the story was debunked.
But Hunter Biden is a public figure who must shoulder a high standard for defamation of “actual malice,” requiring that a false statement be made “with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.” Courts are highly protective of the exercise of opinion, particularly on subjects of great political significance like influence peddling.
The laptop’s legal status is also key. To all appearances, Hunter abandoned the laptop at John Paul Mac Isaac’s Wilmington, Del., computer repair shop. That’s different from the claims of Hunter’s sister, Ashley, who triggered a nationwide FBI investigation into the theft of her diary. While she left her diary at a third party’s home, she insists she did not abandon or forget it. Under standard terms of the agreement, an item left beyond a certain number of days at a business or rental housing becomes abandoned property. It can generally then be left on the curb, sold, or given away. In this case, Hunter signed an agreement that he would forfeit all claims of ownership if he failed to retrieve his property from the shop.
What’s most striking about the Hunter Biden claim is the delay. For more than two years, Hunter has refused to admit the laptop is genuine despite email recipients confirming the content of the communications. The laptop also shows Hunter engaged in potential crimes from drug use to prostitution offenses. Yet he insisted it might all be those pesky Russians again.
Now the laptop is his, and he is fighting mad. Indeed, he’s shocked that anyone would treat his property in this fashion — a property he left at a computer shop and failed to claim for years.
In the effort to target Marco Polo, the Biden team insists it “has operated as little more than a thinly disguised political operation to attack the Biden administration and the Biden family.” That sounds more vindictive than virtuous. Indeed, if the Biden administration started yanking the tax-exempt status of Biden critics, it would trigger an outcry over weaponizing the IRS. (A similar controversy during the Obama-Biden administration involving IRS official Lois Lerner led to a financial settlement with targeted conservative groups.)
Biden’s team seems at points as conflicted as its client. After denouncing the use of his personal property and files, it suggests they might not be his files at all. It claims that “downstream recipients of what has been purported to be Mr. Biden’s hard drive have reported anomalies in the data, suggesting manipulation of it.”
You certainly do not want to be downstream in any Hunter Biden scandal, but this raises questions as to whether these files are authentic while claiming ownership of them.
Notably, Biden has not brought a civil lawsuit for a privacy tort claim despite the bluster and bombast of these letters. The reason is simple: He does not have a privacy case against the media or critics.
Under the tort of “public disclosure of embarrassing private facts,” you can be sued for publishing even true statements that a reasonable person would find offensive. Showing Hunter’s selfie videos allegedly having sex with prostitutes would qualify as embarrassing to most people. But the tort has an exception for “newsworthy” stories or matters of great public interest. Biden may not be the energy or transportation expert his previous positions suggest, but he is most certainly newsworthy.
What is clear is that the letters mark a new chapter in this saga as his legal team attempts to move from the hunted to the Hunter.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and a professor at George Washington University Law School.
The party who should be filing a lawsuit should be the computer repairman to recover possession of HIS laptop. Maybe he can start a legal fund for that purpose.
From Turley’s Linked Article:
“Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, wrote letters to the Justice Department and the Delaware attorney general calling for investigations into Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon and John Mac Isaac, who owns the computer repair shop where Biden is said to have left his laptop”.
QUESTION:
Why were Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon involved in the Hunter Biden laptop discovery? They aren’t law enforcement officers. They aren’t journalists. In fact, both of these men have been embroiled in Trump-related scandals that have tainted their credibility.
The involvement of Rudy Giuliani in particular is one big, big reason mainstream media wanted nothing to do with the laptop ‘scandal’. Common sense would have told journalists to steer clear of anything touched by Rudy. Rudy’s false election claims alone suggest he has no scruples whatsoever.
Rudy Giuliani traveled to Ukraine in early 2020 to investigate the laptop months ahead of the fall election. Joe Biden wasn’t even the Democratic nominee at that point. In other words, Rudy was spearheading an intended October surprise in February! No wonder mainstream media said, “Leave us out of this”.
Yet here we are in February of 2023 and Johnathan Turley wants us to believe the Hunter Biden laptop ‘scandal’ is the most urgent issue facing the country. Never mind the war in Ukraine. Never mind that Republicans want to crash our economy over the debt ceiling. We’re supposed to be hopping mad with regards to Hunter Biden’s laptop.
All day today readers of this blog are going to see a barrage of cookie cutter comments expressing fury at Hunter Biden. And all these comments will bear eerie similarities as though written by the same nerdy Trumper. Such is the trail of Johnathan Turley’s blog.
All day today readers of this blog are going to see a barrage of cookie cutter comments expressing fury at the origins of the content so as to distract from the actual evidence it provides
all the while, the progressive clowns will ignore that the laptop was first turned over to the fbi and the fbi did nothing.
laugh at the progressive clowns, don’t take them seriously.
“Why were . . .”
It’s good to have a cause. Though I’m not sure that front man for a family of grifters is a particularly noble one.
Analomous, the shop gave the laptop to the FBI, who did nothing with it for a year, but the clever guy also made a copy to give to Rudy. SO you point is moot, your point is lame and you are a paid hack.
The FBLIe wouldnt do anything with it, threatened MacIsaac and his father, thats why
Why investigate Guilliani, Bannon and Issac ?
The FBI had this a year before Gulliani.
Hunter has now admitted that the laptop was his.
With respect to Iassac – do you actually think that Hunter Biden sought out some Pro Trump Anti Biden MAc Repair center ?
Why do you want to investigate these people – what are you allegeing as a crime ?
Gleefully spreading dirt on political enemies is not a crime.
As we have Seen from the Durham investigation – Pushing – in some cases litterlaly selling FALSE political dirt to the FBI is also not a crime.
So what is it that you intend to go after Guillini etc for ?
Being write about the corruption of the Bidens in Ukraine, China, …. ?
Left wing nuts demand investigations of people they do not like.
The rest of us want investigations of CONDUCT that is at the very least bad, and possibly criminal.
Going after Isacs is particularly despicable.
You already bankrupted him.
The man is a legally blind computer repairship owner
He did not ask for this mess.
Guillini Bannon etc were NOT involved in the laptops discovery.
Hunter left 2 Mac Laptop’s with Issac’s for repair.
Issac’s contacted Hunter later to pick them up and pay his Bill.
Hunter failed to do so for a very very very long time.
According to the repair contract which Hunter signed after I beleive 90days if Hunter fails to retreive them they become Issac’s property.
This is a standard repair contract provision.
Issac’s then contacted the FBI a year before and gave them the original – which they have burried through this day.
Later Issac’s provided a copy of what he gave to the FBI to Guliani.
What Issac’s gave to the FBI and to Gulliani was HIS to give to anyone else.
Hunter had abandoned it and Issac’s was the legal owner.
Issac providing the HD’s to FBI is the only law enforment issue.
Issac was subsequently free to sell, give, publish or whatever he wanted with the drives.
And you can not find a Lieberal here or otherwise to counter these truths.
The left’s attack’s on these people are complete idiocy.
They are amplifying the claim that for those on the left it is having the wrong ideology that is the crime.
If you do not want to be compared to Stalin or Mao – do not behave like them.
Do not criminalize holding the opposing political position.
Clinton is not and should not be in jail for perpitrating the Collusion delusion Hoax.
Nor should Mt. Issac’s Guiliani, or Bannon for calling attention to inarguably corrupt conduct by the Biden’s and possibly illegal.
First of all, I don’t know all of the facts, but if I believed your alt right version, there is a difference between the physical item of property–being the laptop itself, and the information it contains. Hunter Biden never relinquished any right of ownership of photographs, other images, writings, documents or other contents of the hard drive. They did not become the property of the pro-Trump loser who contacted Giuliani, who first copied and distributed what he claimed was the contents of the laptop to Republican members of Congress, and then the FBI. You are dead wrong about the contents becoming someone else’s property.
I’ll pose a question. Two actually.
If you happened to be sitting next to DJT Jr on the train and he left behind a folder of documents, would you feel at all obligated to return it or at least prevent the dissemination of its contents? Would you surrender them to law enforcement or to someone in the media? Stolen or abandoned. Significant difference.
Hunters readily apparent drug abuse may qualify as a reason for his carelessness but it is not an excuse. It may well go down in history as one of the stupidest things any human has ever done.
It is all property.
Yup HB relinquished his rights to the HD and its contents when he failed to retrieve them when asked.
The order is
Mr. Issacs to FBI, then months later to the Senate, Then to Guiliani
You spent lots of time slandering Guliani – yet once again HE is vindicated.
Guiliani Travel to Ukraine in 2019 – to Investigate the Biden’s involvment in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
John Solomon had conducted extenvie investigations there LONG before Guiliani or the Laptop were discovered.
There has always been plenty of evidence of Biden Misconduct completely independent of the Laptop.
Solomon has hundreds of pages of documents of communications between Hunter and Cronies and the US State department.
Between the State department and Ukraine and Within the State Department, Form the Vice Presidents office as well as docs from the Ukrainian government. depositions, and an assortment of other sources throughout eastern europe tied to Biden family corruption.
Much of this obtained through FOIA requests.
When Trump asked Zelensky to look into the Biden’s misconduct in Ukraine – that had already been extensively publicly reported on By Solomon.
Nor is John Solomon the first. The NY Times was incvestigating the Biden’s conduct in Ukraine in 2015 – based on tip’s from Sydney Blementhal – Hillary’s hatchet man. Blumenthal wanted Biden out of the 2016 Presidential race.
Between the Times reporting and Solomon periodically others added bits and peices to the story.
The Laptop is not the story, it is just a gigantic pile of evidence that corroborates much of what had been investigated previously.
We fixate on the Laptop because it is such a massive data dump and from the INSIDE.
But there is more than enough evidence to investigate the Biden’s without the laptop.
Hunter Biden is not all that important.
Joe Biden is.
Why this scandal has been repeatedly burried – by FBI, by the PRess, by the left, by Social Media – that is a major Story in and of itself.
As was said of Watergate – it is not the crime, but the coverup that is the problem.
In this instance – The Biden’s, the FBI, DHS, Social Media, Democrats, the MSM and the Left are ALL part of the coverup.
And you have been Caught.
It is not Hunter Biden’s atrocious conduct – as much as that is newsworthy. Do you really think that if CNN had video of Eric Trump covorting with Prostitutes or smoking Crack that it would not be 24×7 on the news ?
But the Bige deal is the coverup.
Twitter files tells us the massive efforts Twitter went to burry the story
And it tells us that Twitter KNEW at the time it was not Fake.
They were just doing the Democrats and the FBI’s bidding.
It is the coverup that makes everyone even more certain how bad the crime must be.
Remember – YOU impeached Trump to try to Bury this.
How much bigger a coverup can you get than one that implicates all the democrats in congress.
Who is mad at Hunter ?
Look he is revolting and his conduct immoral.
But there are lots of revolting and immoral people in the world.
There are TWO huge issues:
First is this is all about the Biden family business – which stinks to high heaven is clearly influence peddling appears to be ongiong,
and may be illegal.
The second is a coverup that with near certainty altered the outcome of an election and therefore the future of the country.
Of course people are interested – even some democrats.
John Say, it’s time to admit yourself to a detox center and become clean from your incessant commenting. You’re out of control
Like all progressive clown shows, the hunter comedy is entertaining
It has reached the point where larger questions need to be asked
It has been assumed that the big guy, celtic, etc. all referred to joe, is that true? was obama the big guy, joe – celtic?
Why would so many active and retired intelligence officials risk their pension and lie? there was a lot money out there floating around
obama was warned multiple times about bidens behavior, what did he do/did not do and why?
but the ultimate question – who else was biden inc. supporting?
“Risk their pensions”? You cannot be serious! Accountability, like Elvis, left the building…long ago.
That was my thought too. Why risk their pensions?? Hahaha. As if.
there was a risk, even if it was small. Do you take risks with your career for no reason?
Anonymous—–Obama owed the Bidens big time: Remember that Beau Biden took care of Obama’s Larry Sinclair problem in summer, 2008.
Biden was chosen as his VP two weeks later.
Cindy, didn’t Larry Sinclair get killed in a hit and run. Is that how Hillary became Secretary of State?
Alan…I read once that he had been killed…but then read that story was not true. So, I don’t know. It would have been natural for Hillary to be the VP pick, but the black Dems were still carrying a grudge because of Bill’s 1994 crime bill. (didn’t Biden support that bill?).
IMO, Dems thought that Secretary of State would be a safe position to give Hillary because no Sec’y of State had become President since the 1850’s.
P.S. Dear black Dems–Here’s a bumper sticker idea for Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign:
“If you don’t vote for the sponsor (Biden) of the 1994 Crime Bill, you ain’t black!”
Spin THAT!
“These letters do not confirm Mac Isaac’s or others’ versions of a so-called laptop.”
Joe stole my dog. I’m not admitting it’s my dog. Or even that it’s a dog. But I want Joe, and all his abettors, prosecuted, jailed, fined.
Is there no limit to their insanity?
There is only one laptop, and it’s in the FBI’s possession.
The issue is the electronic data, which can easily be manipulated after it’s copied. Some has been verified. Most hasn’t.
Apparently, there’s an equally amusing argument that the laptop is the possession of the guy who owns the repair shop where Mr. Biden left it. Hence, the assertion that the repair shop guy is the one who put all that stuff on the laptop.
Instead of letting your credibility fall below zero, bolster it up and state one item on the computer that has been used which isn’t real to the computer. You can’t. What you say is BS.
Anonymous: “The issue is the electronic data, which can easily be manipulated after it’s copied”…blah blah blah. Does the term “slobbering fool” mean anything to you? Asking for a friend…though he might not be my friend, I’m not even sure I have a friend. But if I had a friend, he might be asking. He has not been verified to be my friend, and he is quite manipulative if you know what I mean.
You should stay anonymous if this is the best cover you can provide for obvious corruption you wish hadn’t been exposed.
Insanity? No. Corruption? Yes. They know exactly what they are doing. The 1930s gave them the blueprint.
This screams of desperation.
And if this legal team is supposedly that good, they came out awfully flat footed and weak.
And why now? After two years of not acknowledging that the laptop from hell is in fact his?
Or, wait, is it?
“Or, wait, is it?”
It’s the dark art of saying something, without really saying anything. The Left is masterful at it. See the letter signed by 50 intelligence “experts.”
CCP police stations in NYC and SF, spy balloons over military bases…the CCP has infiltrated every sector of our society. The CCP are inveterate liars and sneak-thieves. Hunter and Biden took a BILLION from a CCP bank when he was over there on AF2 when Biden was VP. They are operating to squash free speech here just as they do to the laobaixing in China. The Bidens are totally compromised. Their CCP-Biden Penn Center received over $50 mil in funding from the CCP. The corruption in DC is so massive even the sleepwalkers are beginning to see it now.
As Monalisa would say, “And, there’s more!” https://www.nas.org/reports/after-confucius-institutes
KBigg, that balloon is just a weather balloon.
Its ~3 times larger than a “weather balloon.
According to the DoD it is a surveillance device. But this is a Biden Administration, so initial comments could very well be lies. It takes time to get a plausible story put together.
iowan2 — Weather balloons come in various sizes.
“[T]hat balloon is just a weather balloon.”
Right, just like communist Chinese spies aren’t really spies. They’re just “diplomats,” or “administrative assistants” who happen to sleep with a congressman.
That said, it doesn’t matter if the communist Chinese claim it’s just a circus balloon. It’s an invasion of America’s sovereign territory by a dictatorship. It should have been incinerated before it reached Alaska.
You might want to use a sub headline on this column of “Torts and Tarts and Trolls”. The conditions of abandoning a piece of equipment is basically quite simple and most owners of storage companies can regale you with unimaginable equipment and valuables left and/or abandoned in storage. There is usually a standard contract for payment for storage and if not paid then the storage owner, after a set period of time, can claim everything in storage and sale or keep it. As far as computer repair is concerned, you have to have exceptional trust developed with the repair shop. Best to take to a reputable repair like Apple or Best Buy where they have standards and contracts for the handling of your data. If you want to keep pornographic video, well I have no idea where you would keep those except on a video camera not connected to the web or any of your computers. Maybe best not to record your sex acts at all. Never understood that aspect of narcissism (or whatever else you might call it).
I think, it’s pretty clear if you give up the computer the data on it and the e-mails belong to the new owner of the computer.
If you abandon paper files, you will play hell to get them back. I think thats why police search the trash, because whatever you abandoned can be appropriated by them or basically anyone else. I’m sure it may vary state by state.
It’s been reported that Joe Biden, the president, took out a $250,000 mortgage on his home recently???? When was the last time a sitting president took out a mortgage? It certainly wasn’t Obama! Something stinks.
Probably Biden is one of the signers on SBF’s bail bond, as will be shown when the court unseals it Tuesday.
“It is a curious position when asking for criminal investigations like asking police to look for people who may or may not have stolen a car that may or may not be yours.”
They aren’t asking for investigations of the laptop, which is in the FBI’s possession. They’re asking for investigations of the “accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data,” which Mac Isaac copied before handing the the laptop over, and then shared, and that has clearly been manipulated after the laptop was turned over (https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/hunter-biden-laptop-data-examined/).
It’s extremely easy to distinguish between hardware (the laptop) and electronic data (what Lowell’s letters are about), but Turley doesn’t want to. Turley is smart enough to understand the difference, but purposefully conflates laptop with the computer data because it doesn’t serve his argument to distinguish between them and to help his readers distinguish them.
In general, when you drop off a laptop at a repair shop, you do not give the owner permission to start reading and sharing your personal computer data, only to look at hardware or perhaps to look at file data (e.g., permissions), not the contents. No one would use a repair shop that goes snooping in file contents.
Again: the laptop is in the FBI’s possession. This is about Mac Isaac having copied the hard drive and shared it, and others having subsequently manipulated some of the data. The data may also have been manipulated prior to the laptop having been dropped off, depending on who actually dropped it off. We don’t know.
The legal case should prove interesting.
I’ve been in IT for over 30 years. Everything you say is true right up to the point the hardware is deemed abandoned. You don’t retain ownership of the data beyond the ownership of the hardware. It’s why you never leave a computer or hard drive at a store and don’t pick it up if you have sensitive data on it.
Again: the hardware itself is in the FBI’s possession.
When left abandoned every thing including the hardware became the property of the owner of the shop. He could do what he wanted. He gave the laptop to the FBI. Your attempted point fails.
In general, when you drop off a laptop at a repair shop, you do not give the owner permission to start reading and sharing your personal computer data
I don’t dont know about “in General”
I do know by law the machine and its content become property of the repair shop after a set time.
Can you send a hyperlink to a news article where Hunter has admitted (with quotes, not some half-baked conclusion) to dropping off this specific laptop to the repair shop in Delaware?
Without that, there is a question of fact relating to how the laptop ended up in the store. Legally, the common law doctrine of misplaced/abandoned property would not apply to a stolen item of personal property.
Oh, yeah. Because Hunter Biden is such a paragon of truth-telling. His laptop wasn’t stolen. One gets the impression he watched one of those B-movies about spies in which they dispose of incriminating stuff in a place no one’s likely to look. Sort of like the warehouse in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
There is the document with Hunters signature.
The signature ties Hunter to the serial # of the laptop
The providence of the computer is long settled.
In the past, Hunter only claimed he doesn’t remember.
With this filing, Hunters lawyers wisely don’t question ownership. Ownership of the machine, or the contents.
FBI retired hand writing expert confirms signature.
https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-veteran-conducts-signature-analysis-010500694.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJYIyi1hxa8SMcY45IWKdY4eovy63n5CAFL-6lpmUu_XgOsJ9K3_ojvcmOe4BbAcMIo28osdUCRAmlrbbwkGJtkJrxkhMN0HSDqpw91ONtWgeuSwqzcYGV4N4_TKoG4Acwa9ulQbyhgt_ib22hAImFnPsBiyV1KDi-RvWN3olDYA
Has Hunter filed with the police the theft of his computer? No. Again you are trying to muddy the water. You are not credible.
Anonymous the Stupid posts yet more drivel.
When you abandon. your computer at the repair shop….having refused and/or failed to pay the repair bill….the Repair Shop can legally take ownership of that computer and its contents. That has been proven to be the case with Hunter’s infamous Laptop Computer. Hunter by his relationship to the Senator, and the VP now the President….with a multitude of business relationships with that Public Figure has become a Public Figure.
As the Good Professor rightly points out…..the so called Lawyers offering themselves up as being a Legal Defense Team representing Hunter have made some mighty bold talk…..offered up threats….defamed others…..and as also pointed out by the Professor…..have not followed up all their proud prognostications of doom for those People…..but have not filed a Case in any Court…..something that requires them to provide evidence…real evidence….and that evidence by cross examined by real Defense Lawyers.
One thing about those so called Lawyers is they know they do not have a legal case that will succeed in any Court….beyond a DC Court….but even those Juries cannot be trusted to carry the Biden’s Water in this matter.
Actions speak far louder than words….no Court Civil Action…..means it is all bovine fecal matter and feathers coming from the Biden Defense Team.
Anonymous the Stupid is cut from the same cloth as those Biden Lawyers.
All Hat and no Cattle!
“[W]hen you drop off a laptop at a repair shop, you do not give the owner permission . . .”
You’re lying by omission. And you know you’re lying.
The contract and Delaware law are very clear about the disposition of abandoned property.
They aren’t asking for investigations of the laptop, which is in the FBI’s possession. They’re asking for investigations of the “accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data,”
More meaningless pedantry.
“lHunter’s lap” has become internet short hand, replacing a paragraph of explanation getting to the essence of the topic. All know its not the machine, but the evidence on the machine.
The evidence was found on a laptop owned by Hunter Biden. Abandoned. Legal ownership of the machine, and its contents transferred to the repair shop owner. As required by law, the shop owner found what he thought might be evidence of crimes and reported the evidence to the FBI. The FBI did not respond. The shop owner sought legal counsel as to what his next move should be.
So, now you’re a forensic IT expert, too?
Let him be. He is a small man with a big imagination.
What is interesting is your insane take on this. A person of mediocre morality abandons said laptops at a repair shop Way past the time of pay and pickup said items. Said items revert to the property of the repair shop…that’s it , stop and final. After that time it is the repair shop owners property to do with what he sees fit. And once his property he found disturbing things on these drives. He made copies as it was HIS property. And dutifully handed the original over to the tainted FBLIE. FBLie tried to mothball this incriminating evidence…but Repair guys copies forced them to come clean on knowledge and possession of same , but alas did not induce them to do their job in any way or form except that as biden’s praetorian guard. And now here we are cupcake , a potus so corrupt …a family so on the take …… it will be joeytaterheads undoing if the FBLie can ever be pushed to do their job(s).
Just imagine if this had been Donald trump Jr’s laptop…people of the right political stripe would have already been frog marched to the gallows by merrick the tainted Garland. Yet here we see the obfuscation and protection of a singular party stream of apparatchiks. Me oh my.
Good luck with all that. Scorched earth implies no real legal basis. Hopefully the defendants will get get expenses
Why is Hunter Biden a public figure for defamation purposes? He is a private citizen who happens to be related to a public figure. Staying out of the public conversation on this topic (as you note) only bolsters his argument for not being considered a public figure.
Further, it is possible some of the content stored on the laptop is real while the laptop itself is not. Files are not permanently attached to a computer. Even Dumb and Dumber figured that one out. I don’t see an inherent contradiction there.
Anonymous, defending the indefensible…again. Saying that Hunter is not a public figure is laughable, or did he sell all those “painting” due to his known artistic talents?
Anonymous is still claiming that the laptop may not be real???? if that is your argument you are either a paid operative, a moron or both. Oh yeah, you may also just be a contrarian weirdo who will disagree with EVERYONE in order to try to standout. Sad really. Or it would be sad if Anonymous wasn’t a guy that posts nasty replies to others when they make him look like the fool he is.
Care to offer the public figure analysis for the son of a president?
He has never held public office before and has not “thrust” himself into the public spotlight. Many courts view involuntary limited purpose public figures as “exceedingly rare.” Finally, to be a limited purpose public figure, the controversy would need to be a public one. Here, the improper retrieval and dissemination of private emails is hardly a public controversy. This is not an air traffic controller involved in a plane crash.
Hey Anonymous, how does this PRIVATE GUY manage to sell junk art for tons of money? Care to explain? Also note that you are defending HUNTER BIDEN, a known crook, a soon to be proven crook, an abuser of women, a guy that sued to get his kid to not be allowed to use the name Biden, a guy that had to be sued for child support as he lives in a $20,000 A MONTH place. This is who a Democrat will defend!!!!
Volunarily going on 60 Minutes (I believe it was) to talk about this issue means that Hunter took it public himself and made himself a public figure, at least for the limited purposes of this issue.
What date did he go on 60 minutes?
Joe did. I don’t remember Hunter.
It wasn’t 60 minutes. He spoke to Amy Robach from ABC news for a sit down interview… https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hunter-biden-sits-exclusive-interview-abc-news/story?id=66252777
He would have been, had he not tried to peddle influence. Once he did, he became a public figure.
A lobbyist for a private company is not a public figure, absent additional information. lobbying is “influence peddling,” right? So how can the fact that he is an “influence peddler” be sufficient?
When you have direct access to the VP or President, you ARE a public figure no matter what company you work for.
You are trying to be King and defining what other people should believe. You aren’t King, and your ranking is low. The courts in a libel case might decide if Hunter is a public figure, but I think the proof is there based on everything we have heard about him including his close financial relationship with the President and riding on Air Force One to make a deal providing the Biden Crime Syndicate with ready cash.
Further, it is possible some of the content stored on the laptop is real while the laptop itself is not.
So your sticking with the “51 intelligence officers…” gambit? As in, ‘I have no hint, no clue, not even a prescient dream, there is evidence. I’m just desperate to quash the terrible facts we can all see.’
I have been told there is nothing revealed that is a crime, and no evidence the President is connected in any way…so why all the energy fabricating a defense?
Again, without authentication of ALL of the data, one cannot simply assume it is all real. Just like the Steele dossier and every other cache of primary documents that stirs media frenzy. This isn’t a left vs. right thing, it is basic journalistic standards. But this is all tangential to the original post. And I presume that was your intent.
Just like the Steele dossier
Exactly opposite the Steele dossier, because there was never a single thing verified on the Steele Dossier.
I have yet to see any information being cited, proven illegitimate.
The laptop is real. Biden would be in jail but for the fact that everything in the laptop has to be proven real and accurate. So far all the data released has been proven real to the laptop.
You speak out of two sides of your face.
Why is Hunter considered a public figure? Because he is one.
Here is one definition of “public figure” – an individual or entity that has acquired fame or notoriety or has participated in a particular public controversy.
Thanks for the laugh…you left types make this so easy .
Would you use a computer repair place that turns over your private emails and pictures to your enemy’s lawyer to then disseminate to the world? Why would anyone use a repair shop such as this? It should be illegal, if it is not. is there any code of ethics amongst repair shops?
Tootie, did you ver get a computer fixed? This is SOP for shops that want to make sure you pay for services rendered. 99.9% of people don’t “forget” that they left their computer at the shop.
You don’t retain ownership or control of property you abandon. It’s not his laptop to have any say in.
How do you know he abandoned it? What news article quotes him as admitting to leaving the laptop there?
Hunter signed an agreement that the laptop would be deemed abandoned within a certain amount of time. That amount of time and then some expired without Hunter attempting to retrieve the computer or responding to the shop owner’s attempts to contact him.
There have been numerous articles written about it, the signed agreement has been published, and there’s been no suggestion by Biden that it’s a fake or otherwise not what he signed and agreed to.
Delaware law is clear. The fact it was abandoned is not in dispute.
Keep trying to muddy the water while further damaging your credibility ATS. The laptop was abandoned. You don’t understand it because you probably abandoned your property at your parents house and they threw it out with your favorite blanket. Buy another blanket to suck on.
“How do you know he abandoned it?”
How do you know he even exists? What media source quotes him as admitting that he’s actually a real human being? Maybe he’s just a hologram, whose contents have been manipulated by Giuliani, et al.
Why would anyone leave a computer at a repair shop and NEVER attempt to retrieve it?
Why would a supposed LAWYER voluntarily sign an agreement abandoning ownership of his computer if it isn’t retrieved within a specified amount of time, and then never try to retrieve the computer OR respond to the shop owner’s attempts to contact him about it?
It’s difficult to imagine a lawyer not knowing what he’s signing or trying to pretend YEARS LATER that the document he signed doesn’t mean what it says.
He’s a moron, and it seems advised by morons. Unless they’ve got the judges who they know will agree the document doesn’t mean what the plain language states.
If there’s any intelligence operating behind this belated scheme — and it’s a BIG “if” — I think it might be to simply (1) get the issue into court, and then (2) get a judge to seal everything while things get dragged out until — when? — after the next election? — or after the coming war with Russia or China (or both), at which point Hunter Biden will no longer matter among the millions (or billions) of radioactive dead.
As a retired attorney, I will say that lawyers are the worst at reading stuff like that, but he is stuck with it.
The answers to your two questions are the same as the reason that it is easy to imagine why Hunter did what he did: he’s an addict, drug addled and not firing on all cylinders.
He first contacted the FBI. And he held onto the laptop for over a year – much longer than the SIGNED contract with the moron-in-chief’s darling son required him to do – the contract Biden Jr. signed acknowledged that property left for 30 days was considered abandoned. Biden never did try to retrieve the laptop. Never.
Tootie ; Are you that much of a simp. Reality is that when you abandon such items at any such shop…they revert to the property of said business. Its been that way legally for ions of time. Your post is directly trying to Impune the business owner…nice try but big fail on your biased end. Sure hope you dont abandon anything at a business and still think it and or it’s contents are yours.You will have a rude awakening legally if you do and try and reclaim after that magical time period. But you know this and your partisan yelping is all you have to add.
If Hunter Biden’s legal team truly believed they had a strong defamation argument, they would have already filed the case. They have not. I believe this is a more of a diversionary tactic for damage control purposes as the new House investigative committee begins its probe. With the help of the ever-loyal mainstream media, Hunter’s legal team is redefining events and changing the narrative from a privileged, wealthy, drug addicted scoundrel who refuses to recognize his own daughter, to a “victim”. Thank you, Jonathan, for an excellent article.
The laptop repairman admitted he was trolling through Hunter’s emails the day after it arrived at his shop, looking at a file titled “income.” What right did he have to do that? You do not lose your right to your private information simply because you bring your laptop in for repair. And yes, his emails and pictures were private information. I think Turley would agree that Turley’s emails and information on his laptop is private information too.
When he didn’t pick it back up it became the repair shop’s property. Why he saw prior is irrelevant considering it wasn’t released at the time.
‘Whom’ is it that concocts these Theory’s of Law/Recovery[?]
It wasn’t Hunter Biden, it wasn’t Abbe Lowell, it certainly wasn’t Joe & Jill Biden. WHO[?]
I can’t tell you if it was a; Network Series Producer, a K-Street Firm, or a Political Think Tank.
[The later being the most credible]
SO if you Know Who’s Wet-Dream this is, please chime-in and claim your Prize.
Hunter Legal Team of Abby Lowell is suppose to be the BEST of the Best $$$$$$$ and yet they allow or claim its his property and the next day when they realize its a BIG Mistake to claim this his computer they say its NOT. Sounds like the White Housw and Hunter are running the Legal Team vs the Lawyers??? Establish another fund so the Chinese and others can contribute $$$$$ how much does the Biden Family get as a % and who will control the fund??? Sounds like all this latest attempt by the BIDEN’s/DEMS are in a PANIC or being CORNERED.
The Biden crime family wants an investigation of those who uncover their crimes???
Hilarious!
It is very strange that at this time, the Biden Legal eagles now begin their attack game?? As several critics of the Biden Regime as well as several Journalist begin to unravel the influence pedaling scheme (John Solomon, Dan Bongino, Sara Carter, Tucker Carlson, etc.) they must be over the Target!! The discovery of the Classified Documents seems to have been the trigger. The FBI who has been in possession of the Laptops content for at least 2 years seems strangely silent and left out of Hunter’s and Joe’s wrath??? I wonder why??
It may be that HB monetised classified information in his efforts to get a position on Burisma’s board and possibly after joining the board, and in his proposal to Alcoa to provide information on Russian oligarch and other elite structures. On the other hand, some stories now suggest that his email to Devon Archer relied on public sources. Unless the Special Prosecutor examines this question it will remain hanging. If it happened, it will end Joe Biden’s career.
On the other hand, some stories now suggest that his email to Devon Archer relied on public sources.
does not mean the information was not classified. Intel experts have testified finding AP wire stories stamped classified.
Reporting informs us the FBI did not find classified material at the beach house, having given Biden 3 weeks to clean things up. The FBI did take possessions of notebooks found during the search. The only reason would be because the content of notebooks appears to be classified material, transcribed into the note books.
If this is their idea of a strong and effective opening salvo, one suspects the ROI on the Biden legal team (and on the “Legion of Doom”) will not be terribly high.
When hunter says dirty trick, he is talking about the prostitutes.
Laugh at the progressive clowns