Hunter Biden asks for criminal probe into Trump allies for ‘theft’ of data from laptop

Hunter Biden’s attorneys on Wednesday sent letters asking for investigations into former President Donald Trump’s allies who they say traded in stolen information from his laptop — a dramatic change of strategy for the president’s son after years of GOP attacks.

Among the letters obtained by NBC News was one sent Wednesday to the Justice Department’s Division of National Security requesting an investigation into “anyone who has reasonable grounds to believe that they violated various federal laws by accessing, copying, tampering with and/or distributing Mr. Biden’s personal computer data,” including Rudy Giuliani, who was Trump’s attorney at the time.

Hunter Biden’s attorneys wrote a similar letter to the Delaware Attorney General, calling for an investigation into the same individuals for allegedly violating “various Delaware laws” in accessing Biden’s information from what Trump has dubbed “the laptop from hell.”

The Justice Department declined to comment. A spokesman for the Delaware Attorney General did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Information from the laptop has raised questions about Biden’s finances, which have been under investigation by federal prosecutors in Delaware since 2018. They were also the source of several salacious conservative media stories, many of which focused on his drug use.

Biden has largely kept a low profile over the years of stories — Trump would ask, “Where’s Hunter?” during campaign rallies in the 2020 election — but one person familiar with the first-son strategy told NBC News he’s had enough.

“This marks a new approach by Hunter Biden and his team. He will not sit back and watch as questionable characters continue to violate his rights and media organizations that peddle lies try to defame him,” the person said.

Giuliani has admitted giving a copy of the computer’s hard drive to the New York Post just ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The letters to investigators also recommend an investigation by John Paul Mac Isaac, who said Biden left the water-damaged laptop at his computer repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware.

“Mr. Mac Isaac chose to work with President Donald Trump’s personal attorney to arm Mr. Biden’s personal computer records against his father, Joseph R. Biden, by unlawfully allowing Mr. Biden’s personal information to be provided to the New York Post prompted,” the letter says.

It charged Mac Isaac and others with “stealing computer services” and Giuliani and others with “possession of stolen property.”

While Biden has previously commented on whether the various emails and pictures were legitimate, the letters appear to acknowledge that at least some are — but Biden isn’t sure how much.

The letters said that evaluating the data was “extremely difficult because for months neither the New York Post nor its source for the material, President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, were willing to share this data with the public.” , downstream recipients of what is said to be Mr. Biden’s hard drive have reported anomalies in the data, suggesting tampering.

In another letter sent Wednesday, Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, asked the tax agency to review the tax-exempt status of a nonprofit led by Garrett Ziegler, which Biden said had the data he received from Giuliani uploaded to the non-profit organization’s website.

The letter said the organization “operated little more than a thinly disguised political operation to attack the Biden administration and the Biden family,” in contrast to regulations that state such groups “are not engaged in campaign activities for or.” against political candidates”.

The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Biden’s attorneys also sent a letter to Fox News and host Tucker Carlson demanding the retraction of “false and defamatory statements made by Mr. Carlson on his show” about Hunter Biden.

The story falsely implied that Hunter Biden was involved in a “money laundering scheme to fund President Biden’s lifestyle” by paying him $50,000 a month in rent. The story was quickly debunked, but Carlson never retracted it, the letter said.

The letter also alerts Carlson and the network “to potential litigation” and urges them to keep all documents related to the story.

Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.