Hunter Biden drops lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani for releasing his laptop's information
Hunter Biden has withdrawn his lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani, whom he accused of the "total annihilation" of his personal life, after the release of material from a laptop that spurred congressional investigations and helped convict the president's son of criminal gun charges.
Biden could potentially refile the lawsuit after Giuliani resolves his pending bankruptcy case.
The withdrawal Thursday came after U.S. District Judge Jessica Clarke asked lawyers for Biden and Giuliani whether they wanted to proceed with the case before Giuliani’s bankruptcy claim is resolved or dismiss the case.
Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, and Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph Sibley, jointly agreed to drop the case. The filing said each side would pay for their own lawyers.
Sibley said Biden was in a position of either amending his complaint to participate in the bankruptcy case or respond to Giuliani's request to dismiss the case.
"He instead elected to voluntarily dismiss the case," Sibley said. "We believe he did so because his case lacks merit as outlined in our motion to dismiss and the recent criminal proceedings where the 'laptop' and/or hard drive data he refused to unequivocally admit belonged to him in our case was used to convict him as was widely reported."
A Giuliani spokesman, Ted Goodman, said the withdrawal of the lawsuit should serve as a reminder he was right about Biden’s laptop.
“This should serve as a reminder to people that – despite the unrelenting attacks by partisan Democrats and their allies in the permanent Washington political class – Mayor Rudy Giuliani's integrity and commitment to the truth is unwavering,” Goodman said.
The laptop provided a treasure trove of evidence for House Republican investigations of Biden and for criminal charges against him.
Pictures and text messages from Biden’s electronic devices were used to help convict him of gun charges in federal court on June 11 by suggesting he lied on a form about being addicted to drugs. Pictures showed apparent drugs and text messages referred to waiting for a dealer and to using drugs.
The laptop's contents were widely distributed after Biden failed to retrieve it from a computer repair shop. The shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, gave it to the FBI and Giuliani. The former mayor of New York City was a campaign lawyer for former President Donald Trump, a political rival President Joe Biden. Giuliani allegedly spent months going through the contents before distributing material to reporters and Republicans.
Biden's lawsuit alleged Giuliani tampered with the contents of the laptop and unlawfully distributed its contents. The He alleged violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, California’s Computer Data Access and Fraud Act and California’s Unfair Competition Law. Biden could potentially refile it after Giuliani resolves his pending bankruptcy case.
Since then, Giuliani has filed a bankruptcy case under Chapter 11 to reorganize his finances. His move came quickly after two Georgia election workers he defamed won a $148 million judgment against him in federal court. Giuliani has also appealed the judgment.
Giuliani still must contend with several other lawsuits, including a $10 million lawsuit from a former associate for alleged misconduct such as sexual assault and sexual harassment, a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic for spreading false allegations about election fraud involving their machines, and a lawsuit from a Staten Island, N.Y. who says Giuliani falsely accused him of assault, leading to the man's arrest.
Giuliani also faces criminal legal troubles of his own. He has been indicted in Arizona and Georgia for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and he is an unindicted co-conspirator in Trump's federal charges for election interference.
Biden’s lawsuit had been part of an aggressive legal strategy after revelations about his personal life and the collapse of a plea agreement to resolve tax and gun charges. Biden sued Isaac and the Internal Revenue Service after two agents discussed investigating him with Congress and in news interviews.
House Republicans have used contents of the laptop in their investigation of Biden’s overseas business deals. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., brought poster boards of nude pictures of Biden to one hearing.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hunter Biden drops lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani over laptop
