Hunter Bidens lawyers, in aggressive new strategy, target critics

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Hunter Bidens’ lawyers, in a newly aggressive strategy, sent a series of scathing letters Wednesday to state and federal prosecutors demanding criminal investigations into those who accessed and disseminated his personal data and sent a separate letter threatening the Fox News host Tucker Carlson of a libel lawsuit.

The series of letters, which included criminal dismissals and cease-and-desist missives aimed at critics and detractors, marked the start of a much more impactful new phase for the president’s son, just as the House Republicans are planning their own investigations into him.

Father Lowell, a newly hired attorney Hunter Biden recruited about a month ago, has sent lengthy letters to the Delawares Department of Justice and Attorney General demanding investigations into several key players involved in the data release. from a laptop that Biden allegedly dropped. at a repair shop in Wilmington, Del.

Bryan M. Sullivan, another lawyer now representing Biden, sent a separate communication to Carlson and Fox News asking them to correct the lies in his recent show, or risk a possible libel suit.

And in another letter, Lowell wrote to the Internal Revenue Service challenging the nonprofit status of Marco Polo, a group led by conservative activist Garett M. Ziegler. Lowell provided 36 pages as evidence that the group engages in political activity in violation of its nonprofit status.

Some in Hunter Biden’s circle want to sue the accusers

Taken together, these actions represent the boldest and most aggressive steps to date from Hunter Biden, who has often heeded the advice of those who have urged him not to make public waves. Those close to President Biden and the White House preferred a more conservative approach, but some people around Hunter Biden wanted to be more assertive in telling his side of the story and attacking his opponents more directly.

It marks a new approach from Hunter Biden and his team, said a person familiar with his strategy, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans privately. He is not going to sit quietly as dodgy figures continue to violate his rights and media organizations peddling lies attempt to defame him.

The new strategy marks a calculated risk that it is better to fight a combative path and face long-standing criticism of Hunter Bidens, even if it means inviting more media coverage of a dark chapter in his life and attracting additional attention. on the treasure trove of personal information and embarrassing material included on a laptop that was circulated by his detractors.

In the laptop letter, Hunter Bidens’ attorneys are asking state and federal law enforcement to investigate who came into possession of the data he allegedly filed in Delaware in April 2019. They claim that about half a dozen people violated various laws, including making restricted private information public; accessing and distributing stolen property; and make false statements to Congress.

The actions described above deserve more than a full investigation and, depending on the resulting facts, may merit prosecution under various laws, the letter reads. It’s not common for a private person and their lawyer to seek out someone else under investigation, but the actions and motives here require it.

Hunter Biden’s allies weigh in on legal defense fund

The letter is particularly focused on John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of the computer repair shop who first received the equipment from Biden in April 2019. Mac Isaac has written a book and spoken at political events, and Bidens’ lawyers point to inconsistencies in his account.

The letter also calls for investigations of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who received the material from Mac Isaac and then distributed it; Robert Costello, who is Giuliani’s attorney and who also received the material; and Stephen K. Bannon, who also had the material and helped facilitate early reporting on it.

Hunter Bidens’ lawyers also name Jack Maxey, who provided the material to several news outlets, including the Washington Post, as well as Ziegler, who uploaded data to his website, and Yaacov Apelbaum, a former aide to Sen. Ron Johnson, D-Wis., who Mac Isaac says helped create a forensic image of the hard drive.

As the material has circulated among conservative activists and the media, it has sparked debate over its authenticity. In filing the lawsuit, however, Bidens’ lawyers seem to admit that some of the data Bidens’ lawyers seem to admit that some of the data that has been made public is his private information, even though they say other documents could have be later. amended. They don’t say if he actually dropped off a laptop for repair.

These unlawful actions have prompted the widespread publication, manipulation and exploitation of much of Mr. Bidens’ personal information, Lowell wrote in one of the letters.

Citing Mac Isaacs’ admission that he reviewed some of Hunter Bidens’ financial information on the laptop, the lawyers say he had no authority or permission to do so.

Backing up Mr. Bidens’ files for any repairs did not require Mr. Mac Isaac to examine the contents of those files, Lowell writes. Mr. Biden did not consent to Mr. Mac Isaac having access to the contents of these files in April 2019 or at any other time.

The letters also reveal that in December, another of Hunter Bidens’ lawyers, Chris Clark, a former federal prosecutor and New York-based partner at Latham & Watkins, sent a similar criminal reference focused only on Mac Isaac to the US Attorney’s Office. of the southern district. from New York.

The laptop has come under intense scrutiny dating back to stories the New York Post published just before the 2020 election. At the time, the Washington Post repeatedly asked Giuliani and Bannon for a copy of the data to be examined, but the requests were rejected or ignored.

In June 2021, Maxey, who previously worked as a researcher for the Bannons War Room podcast, delivered a portable hard drive to The Washington Post that he said contained the data. He said he got it from Giuliani.

The Post asked two security experts to examine 217 gigabytes of data on disk, and they found nearly 22,000 emails containing cryptographic signatures that could be verified using hard-to-forge technology. , even for the most sophisticated hackers. The vast majority of the data and most of the nearly 129,000 emails it contained could not be verified, security experts said.

Hunter Biden said he didn’t know if the laptop was his and didn’t remember putting it down, but admitted his memory at the height of his drug addiction was unreliable . His allies also suggest that the materials made public later could be a mixture of materials obtained in various ways.

During the same period, Biden also left a laptop computer with Keith Ablow, a Massachusetts psychiatrist who was close to Republican activist Roger Stone. This laptop was seized by officers who raided Ablows’ office in February 2020, and it was eventually returned to Hunter Biden.

Kevin Morris, one of Hunter Bidens’ friends and associates, oversaw a forensic analysis of that laptop to determine if it formed the basis of the hard drives that were later distributed by Trump allies.

Attorneys for Hunter Bidens also claim he was defamed by Fox News, in a story Carlson ran in which he falsely claimed that Hunter Biden paid his father $50,000 in rent, a ploy he says , was used to channel father’s money. to the son.

But the reality, as deconstructed by The Washington Post Fact Checker, showed that Hunter Biden was actually paying $49,910 every three months for office space in Washington.

Some other outlets, including The Daily Caller, later updated and removed their stories.

The time Tucker Carlson asked Hunter Biden for a favor

We demand that you immediately retract these statements by devoting a significant amount of airtime to such retraction, Sullivan wrote in the letter to Carlson and a Fox News attorney.

He demanded an apology from Carlson and other commentators, including Foxs Sean Hannity, who made similar statements, and asked Fox News to respond in writing by Thursday.

If we don’t receive this written confirmation, we’ll assume that you are not interested in acting responsibly and professionally and are willing to rescind his malice report, Sullivan wrote.

Citing the potential for litigation, Sullivan also demanded that Fox News preserve all communications and materials related to the story.

In a twist of irony, Carlson and Biden have a long history and a unique friendship. The Post wrote last year about how their families were friends and how Tucker Carlson and his wife enlisted the help of Bidens to bring their son to Georgetown.

Carlson, in a phone interview for this article, said he was once close to Biden, as he said on his show.

Hunter Biden was my neighbor. Our wives were friends. I knew him well. I’ve spoken to him many times about addiction, something I know well, Carlson said. And I said that. I think Hunter Biden is a drug addict and that’s why his life is falling apart, and I feel bad for him. I’ve said it many times, and I mean it.

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