Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, took legal action on Tuesday by filing a lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani, accusing the former lawyer of Donald Trump of computer fraud related to the unauthorised access of personal data on his computer.
This civil lawsuit was initiated in California, where Hunter Biden resides, and it alleges that Giuliani, along with Robert Costello, a legal representative of the former New York mayor, were responsible for what Hunter Biden described as the "total annihilation" of his digital privacy. In this lawsuit, the 53-year-old Hunter Biden has requested a jury trial and unspecified damages.
The origins of this legal dispute trace back to 2020 when, in an attempt to discredit Joe Biden in the run-up to the November presidential election, Giuliani and Trump's associates disseminated information obtained from a laptop that Hunter Biden purportedly left at a computer repair shop in Delaware.
The complaint filed by Hunter Biden stated that the defendants had invested considerable time and effort in searching for, hacking into, tampering with, manipulating, copying, disseminating, and extensively scrutinising data that they had acquired, either through legitimate means or illicit methods, from his devices.
Prior to this lawsuit against Giuliani, Hunter Biden had already taken legal action against the owner of the aforementioned computer repair shop earlier in the year, as well as against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for disclosing his tax records.
For Giuliani, this lawsuit represents another legal challenge among several he currently faces. He has been indicted in Georgia, along with Trump and others, for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in that state.
Furthermore, Giuliani has been found liable for defamation in a case involving two Georgia election workers, and he is confronting allegations of sexual assault and harassment from a former assistant.
Hunter Biden, a recovering substance abuser, is currently the subject of an investigation by a special counsel from the Justice Department regarding potential tax evasion. Additionally, he is scheduled to appear in court in Delaware next month in connection with a firearms violation.
It is important to note that while Hunter Biden's business activities in Ukraine and China during his father's tenure as vice president have been a frequent target of Republican scrutiny, he has not faced any criminal charges related to these overseas business dealings.
Moreover, no substantial evidence has emerged to date implicating the president in any unlawful activities. Despite this, the controversy surrounding Hunter Biden's foreign business ties prompted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to authorise the launch of an impeachment investigation this month into Joe Biden, yielding a response to pressure from the party's more conservative faction.