{"id":1703838,"date":"2022-10-20T11:40:28","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T15:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1703838"},"modified":"2022-10-20T12:19:36","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T16:19:36","slug":"delaware-computer-store-owner-sues-hunter-biden-campaign-for-defamation-over-laptop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/delaware-computer-store-owner-sues-hunter-biden-campaign-for-defamation-over-laptop\/","title":{"rendered":"Delaware Computer Store Owner Sues Hunter, Biden Campaign For Defamation Over Laptop"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdelaware-computer-store-owner-sues-hunter-biden-campaign-for-defamation-over-laptop%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1703838&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-20-at-7.59.17-AM.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The owner of the Delaware computer repair store where Hunter Biden abandoned his MacBook filed suit against Hunter Biden, the Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign, Rep. Adam Schiff, CNN, and Politico in Delaware state court on Monday. The eight-count complaint alleged claims of defamation, civil conspiracy, and civil aiding and abetting against the defendants based on statements they made after the New York Post published the scandalous materials recovered from Hunter\u2019s laptop.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>John Paul Mac Isaac found himself thrust into the public eye after the New York Post on Oct. 14, 2020, published an expos\u00e9 about the contents of the laptop Hunter Biden had abandoned at Isaac\u2019s Delaware computer repair store. No sooner had the news broken than Joe Biden\u2019s presidential campaign and backers of the Democrat candidate called the story Russian disinformation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While Hunter Biden refused to comment on the story before the November 2020 election, after President Biden found himself safely in the White House, Hunter sat down with CBS News and when asked, \u201cWas that your laptop?\u201d the president\u2019s son <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CBSSunday\/status\/1377949486329237512\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">replied<\/a>: \u201cI really don\u2019t know what the answer is. I have no idea.\u201d But when pushed on whether the laptop could be his, Hunter responded: \u201cThere could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me.\u201d \u201cIt could be that I was hacked. It could be that it was the \u2014 that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Isaac\u2019s lawsuit against Hunter alleges that, contrary to Hunter\u2019s claims, he knew the laptop was his, as Hunter knowingly left the laptop with Isaac on April 12, 2019, and then a short time later returned to the store with an external hard drive for Isaac to transfer the data recovered from the laptop hard drive. Yet Hunter \u201cknowingly broadcast the false and defamatory information about his laptop to third parties \u2014 viewers of the interview\u201d that imputed that Isaac was \u201cinvolved in one or more crimes including, theft of his laptop, hacking of his laptop, or being part of a plot by Russian intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Delaware store owner also sued the \u201cBiden for President Campaign Committee,\u201d or \u201cBFPCC,\u201d which served as Joe Biden\u2019s presidential campaign. According to his complaint, the members of the BFPCC claimed the New York Post expos\u00e9 was \u201ca Russian disinformation operation.\u201d A senior Biden campaign adviser would repeat that theme in an interview on MSNBC, saying that if then-President Trump \u201cdecides to amplify these latest smears against the vice president and his only living son, that is Russian disinformation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield, on behalf of BFPCC, likewise said of the information from the laptop \u201cthat what [Trump is] doing here is amplifying Russian misinformation.\u201d And the candidate himself, Joseph R. Biden Jr., the complaint stressed, \u201crepresenting the views of BFPCC,\u201d said, \u201c[t]here are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he\u2019s accusing me of is a Russian plant. Five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he\u2019s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except his good friend Rudy Giuliani.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In his defamation count against BFPCC, Isaac alleged the campaign committee employees knew or should have known that the claims of Russian disinformation were false. Yet they published those statements about the laptop knowing they would subject Isaac to \u201cdistrust, scorn, ridicule, hatred, and contempt, which continues to this day\u201d and that they imply Isaac \u201ccommitted an infamous crime, i.e., treason and\/or other crimes against the United States of America by participating in a Russian attempt to undermine American democracy and the 2020 Presidential election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Isaac also added Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., CNN, and Politico as defendants in the newly filed complaint. The Delaware store owner had previously sued those three defendants, along with The Daily Beast in a Maryland state court but later voluntarily dismissed that lawsuit. Isaac later entered into a confidential settlement agreement with The Daily Beast, according to his attorney Brian Della Rocca, before refiling the claims against Schiff, CNN, and Politico in the lawsuit that also named Hunter and the Biden campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The claims against Schiff and CNN stem from the congressman\u2019s appearance on the cable network to discuss the emails recovered from the laptop. Schiff told the network\u2019s Wolf Blitzer during an interview that \u201cwe know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin.\u201d Schiff had no evidence that the information contained in the New York Post expos\u00e9 was part of Russian disinformation, however, and by representing otherwise, the complaint alleged, Schiff portrayed Isaac as a Russian agent or participant in a Russian disinformation campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Isaac\u2019s claim against Politico rests on that outlet\u2019s publication of an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/10\/19\/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> titled \u201cHunter Biden Story is Russian Disinfo, Dozens of Former Intel Officials Say.\u201d The article then discussed the letter signed by more than 50 former senior intelligence officials that addressed the recent publication of Hunter Biden\u2019s emails. That letter did not assert that the Hunter story was Russian disinformation, though, instead merely claiming it had \u201call the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By framing the laptop story as actual \u201cRussian Disinfo\u201d in its title, Politico defamed Isaac, his attorney alleged, as the article \u201cclearly identifies the information as coming from Plaintiff.\u201d Thus, Politico\u2019s reporting implies Isaac was \u201cpart of a Russian disinformation campaign\u201d and\/or \u201cmore specifically a Russian agent,\u201d according to Isaac\u2019s complaint.<\/p>\n<h2>A Promising Case<\/h2>\n<p>This recently filed defamation case proves promising for several reasons. First, the lawsuit follows the concession by several legacy media outlets of the authenticity of the laptop, making the defendants\u2019 claims of Russian disinformation specious.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow that the world has a better understanding of the legitimacy of the Hunter Biden laptop story, it is clear that there was a concerted effort to kill the story by defaming John Paul and others,\u201d Isaac\u2019s lawyer Della Rocca told The Federalist. \u201cThis destroyed John Paul\u2019s reputation and his business,\u201d Della Rocca added, noting, \u201cWe now know how much of a role Representative Schiff and Hunter Biden played in the conspiracy to defame John Paul and it is time they, along with others, are held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit also proves significant for a second reason: By naming both Hunter Biden and his father\u2019s presidential campaign, Isaac\u2019s case holds the potential to uncover any complicity between the Bidens and the spinning of the story as Russian disinformation. And because Isaac named the presidential campaign and not Joe Biden, there is a chance that portion of the suit can proceed even while Biden is president.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Isaac\u2019s lawsuit follows revelations that members of the FBI pushed Facebook to censor the story as Russian disinformation. Discovery should reveal whether the FBI, intelligence agencies, or other Democrat operatives pushed Politico, CNN, and other private organizations to block the story and, if so, how.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But first, Isaac will need to withstand a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which will likely be filed in the coming months.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Margot Cleveland is The Federalist&#8217;s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. <\/p>\n<p>Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. <\/p>\n<p>As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The owner of the Delaware computer repair store where Hunter Biden abandoned his MacBook filed suit against Hunter Biden, the Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign, Rep. Adam Schiff, CNN, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1703844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1703838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1703838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1703844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1703838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1703838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1703838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}