Hunter Biden Goes on the Counter-Attack

Hunter Biden has filed a lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani and Giuliani's former lawyer Robert Costello in California, blaming them for the "total annihilation" of his data and "digital privacy" in response to their alleged role in sharing information from a laptop the president's son left at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019.

Republicans have been focusing heavily on Hunter Biden's business activities as they weigh a possible attempt to impeach President Biden with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ordering a formal impeachment inquiry earlier this month. McCarthy alleged a "culture of corruption" among the Bidens, with critics claiming some of Biden's political decision-making was influenced by payments to his son.

This remains unproven and has been fervently denied by the president.

The lawsuit alleges: "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."

Hunter's lawyers claimed data from the laptop, some of the content of which has been authenticated by third parties, was "manipulated, altered and damaged" before being sent out.

Giuliani and Costello are accused of violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, along with two other California laws.

Newsweek reached out to Costello via email and Giuliani via the website for his Common Sense podcast for comment, respectively.

In March, Hunter sued John Paul Mac Isaac, owned of the repair shop where he left his laptop, alleging he had illegally copied and distributed content from its hard drive. The court filing said: "Mac Isaac intended and knew, or clearly should have known, that people to whom he provided the data that he believed to belong to Mr. Biden would use it against then-candidate Joseph Biden and to assist then-President Trump."

Earlier this month, Hunter was charged with three federal felony firearm offenses after a plea deal with prosecutors collapsed. The president's son is accused of lying about being a drug user while purchasing a firearm, though he denies any wrongdoing.

Giuliani was one of 18 Trump associates charged alongside the former president in August over claims they broke the law while attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election result in Georgia. The former New York mayor pleaded not guilty to 13 counts, including making false statements, conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer and conspiracy to commit forgery.

Giuliani was sued last week by Costello and his company, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, over the alleged non-payment of legal fees.