WASHINGTON (AP) – The attorney for President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, is asking the Justice Department to investigate a close associate of former President Donald Trump and others who he says accessed and distributed personal data from a laptop he downloaded from a Delaware computer. workshop in 2019.
In a separate letter, Biden’s lawyer also asked Fox News host Tucker Carlson to retract and apologize for what he said were false and defamatory statements he repeatedly made about him on air, including without proof that he had unauthorized access to classified documents. in his father’s house.
The request for a criminal investigation, which comes as Hunter Biden faces his own tax evasion investigation by the Justice Department, does not mean federal prosecutors will open an investigation or take other action. However, it represents a change of strategy and a rare public response by the younger Biden and his legal team to years of attacks by Republican officials and conservative media, scrutiny expected to continue now that the GOP has taken over the House.
It also represents the latest salvo in the long-running laptop saga, which began with a New York Post story in October 2020 that detailed several emails it said were found on devices related to Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. It was quickly seized upon by Trump as a campaign issue during that year’s presidential election.
The letter, signed by prominent Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell, seeks an investigation into, among others, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, Trump’s longtime lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Giuliani’s own lawyer and the owner of a Wilmington computer repair shop, John Paul Mac Isaac, who has spoken out. Hunter Biden dropped his laptop at the store in April 2019 and never returned to retrieve it.
The letter cited a section of Mac Isaac’s book in which he admitted to reviewing private and sensitive material from Biden’s laptop, including a file titled “income.pdf.” It noted that Mac Isaac sent a copy of the laptop data to Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, who then shared it with Giuliani, a close Trump ally who at the time was pushing the discredited theory about the younger Biden.
Giuliani provided the information to a reporter at the New York Post, who first wrote about the laptop, and also to Bannon, according to the letter. Hunter Biden never allowed his personal information to be accessed or shared in that way, his lawyer said.
“This failed dirty political trick directly led to the exposure, exploitation, and manipulation of Mr. Biden’s private and personal information,” the letter said, adding, “Politicians and the news media used unauthorized access, copying, distribution, and manipulation of data to changing the truth and causing harm to Mr. Biden.
Mac Isaac declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press on Wednesday afternoon. Costello, asked to comment on behalf of himself and Giuliani, called the letter a “reckless legal document” and said it “reeks of desperation knowing judgment day is coming for the Bidens.”
A lawyer who represented Bannon at the trial in Washington, DC, last year did not immediately return calls seeking comment. A Fox News representative had no immediate comment.
The letter to the Department of Justice was addressed to a top national security official, Matthew Olsen. It cites possible violations of statutes that prohibit unauthorized access to computer or stored electronic communications, as well as transportation of stolen data across state lines and restricted publication of personal data with intent to intimidate or threaten.
It also asked prosecutors to investigate whether any data was manipulated or destroyed in any way.
“The actions described above are more important than a full investigation and, depending on the facts produced, may be prosecuted under various statutes. It is not common for private persons and their counsel to seek other persons to be investigated, but the actions and motives here require it. Lowell wrote in the letter.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
Separate letters calling for an investigation were also sent to the Delaware state attorney general’s office and the Internal Revenue Service. A spokesman there did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Associated Press writer David Bauder in New York contributed to this report.
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