Judge rejects computer repairman’s defamation claims over reports on Hunter Biden laptop
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A computer repairman at the center of a controversy over Hunter Biden’s laptop has lost his defamation case against news outlets, the president’s son and Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
A Delaware judge on Monday also dismissed Hunter Biden’s claims accusing Wilmington computer shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac of invasion of privacy.
Mac Isaac alleged that he was defamed by media reports and statements from Hunter Biden and his father’s presidential campaign implying that the laptop left at his shop in April 2019 was part of a Russian disinformation campaign and that the computer and data it contained may have been stolen.
The laptop surfaced publicly in October 2020 when The New York Post reported on emails it contained regarding Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine, where the Obama administration’s foreign policy efforts had been led by his father. In response, 51 former intelligence officials signed a public statement asserting that the laptop story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” an assertion that proved to be false.
In a 2021 television interview, Hunter Biden said the laptop could have been stolen from him or hacked, or that Russian intelligence was involved.
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