Joe Biden could be roped into Hunter’s laptop defamation lawsuit, experts say
President Biden could find himself roped into his son’s legal woes as an ongoing defamation case against Hunter Biden slowly makes its way through the courts and both sides gear up for discovery, legal experts told The Post.
John Paul Mac Isaac, a Delaware computer repairman, filed a suit against Hunter Biden and President Biden’s campaign committee on March 1 claiming the pair sought to falsely cast the contents of Hunter’s laptop as “Russian disinformation.”
Hunter Biden dropped off his laptop at Mac Isaac’s computer repair store in Delaware in April 2019 and never returned for it.
The computer drive — containing years worth of compromising professional and personal data — eventually made its way to former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who provided it to The Post.
Experts warn discovery will be fraught with peril for Hunter Biden — and could potentially rope in the president — who is expected to be locked in a fierce battle for reelection in 2024.
“[Hunter Biden] is subject to discovery,” said Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz.
“Discovery is very broad. It would include emails, texts with his father, and potentially all the contents of [Hunter’s] computer, even that which hasn’t yet been revealed. So it’s a very risky decision to get involved in litigation when you might have things to hide.”
Dershowitz added that President Biden could “technically be subject to a deposition” but said that it would ultimately be a question for the judge in the case.
Ronald Poliquin, an attorney for Mac Isaac, told The Post, “Discovery will entail depositions of individuals who perpetrated the claim that Jon Mac Isaac was a tool for Russian disinformation.
As alleged in the complaint, President Biden’s Presidential Campaign Committee and himself were a key part of that effort.”
In his suit, Mac Isaac named President Biden and top campaign aides as people who falsely sought to discredit the laptop.
It notes at least one instance where then-candidate Joe Biden falsely insisted the laptop was “disinformation from the Russians.”
There is ample historical precedent for a sitting president to be deposed in a civil lawsuit. In 1998 former president Bill Clinton spent six hours in a deposition stemming from a sexual harassment lawsuit brought against him by Paula Jones.
The false statements he made about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky during his deposition ultimately led to his impeachment. Clinton paid Jones $850,000 in a settlement but did not admit wrongdoing.
Team Hunter, meanwhile, appears uninterested in a settlement.
On March 17, attorneys for the First Son filed a countersuit against Mac Isaac alleging that the computer repair store owner had violated his privacy and that Mac Isaac had no legal right to disseminate the contents of the laptop that was abandoned at his Delaware store in 2019.
“We have engaged with the plaintiff’s counsel to arrange, as soon as practicable, a date upon which all parties can confer to discuss, among other topics, the timing and sequence of discovery. We then will promptly provide the court with a proposed case schedule for discovery,” Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell wrote to United States District Judge Maryellen Noreika.
