Biden’s son seeks probe of Trump allies over laptop

A lawyer for US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter has asked the Justice Department to investigate close allies of former president Donald Trump and others who he says accessed and disseminated personal data from a laptop that was dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019.

In a separate letter, Biden’s lawyers have also asked Fox News host Tucker Carlson to retract and apologise for what they say are false and defamatory claims made repeatedly about him on-air, including implying without evidence that he had unauthorised access to classified documents found at his father’s home.

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 Wilmington computer repair shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, who has said Hunter Biden dropped a laptop off at his store in April 2019 and never returned to pick it up.

The letter cites passages from Mac Isaac’s book in which he admitted reviewing private and sensitive material from Biden’s laptop, including a file titled “income.pdf”. It notes that Mac Isaac sent a copy of the laptop data to Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, who in turn shared it with Giuliani, a close ally of Trump’s who at the time was pushing discredited theories about the younger Biden.

Giuliani provided the information to a reporter at the New York Post, which first wrote about the laptop, and also to Bannon, according to the letter. Hunter Biden never consented to any of his personal information being accessed or shared in that manner, his lawyer says.

“This failed dirty political trick directly resulted in the exposure, exploitation, and manipulation of Mr. Biden’s private and personal information,” the letter says, adding, “Politicians and the news media have used this unlawfully accessed, copied, distributed, and manipulated data to distort the truth and cause harm to Mr. Biden.”

Mac Isaac declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press on Wednesday evening. Costello, asked to comment on behalf of him and Giuliani, called the letter “a frivolous legal document” and said it “reeks of desperation because they know judgment day is coming for the Bidens.”

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

Separate letters requesting investigations were also sent to the Delaware state attorney-general’s office and to the Internal Revenue Service. Spokespeople there did not immediately return emails seeking comment.