Hunter Biden, son of former vice president Joe Biden, has filed a lawsuit against John Paul Mac Isaac, the computer repair shop owner who released the contents of a laptop that Biden left at his shop. Biden's legal team is claiming that Mac Isaac violated Biden's privacy by accessing, viewing, distributing and profiting illegally from the salacious emails he found. Biden is seeking a jury trial to order Mac Isaac to return any data he claims belong to Biden, pay an unspecified amount of damages and is also seeking documents, a deposition from Mac Isaac and testimony by associates of Mac Isaac.
The laptop contents became the subject of intense controversy in the 2020 presidential election, with some of the emails purporting to show Biden leveraging the influence of his father in his business deals in Ukraine. Biden's legal team did not confirm that the laptop belonged to the president's son, but noted that Mac Isaac had obtained and shared personal data that belong to Biden. Security experts examining the data found nearly 22,000 emails carrying cryptographic signatures that could be verified - with the vast majority of emails and most of the data - unable to be verified.
The suit claims that Delaware law would have restricted Mac Isaac's ability to access or distribute the data on the laptop and that even if the laptop had been abandoned, that would give only Mac Isaac the right to the equipment, not the data stored on it. Biden’s legal team is seeking justice, demanding Mac Isaac and any associates involved in the alleged privacy violation face the consequences of their actions.