Hunter Biden has taken legal action against Rudy Giuliani and his former attorney, alleging that they have deliberately infringed upon his digital privacy and violated both federal and state computer privacy laws. In a civil lawsuit filed in California's federal court, Hunter Biden claims that Giuliani and Robert Costello have engaged in a prolonged period of hacking, tampering with, manipulating, disseminating, and unwarrantedly focusing on data obtained from his devices, some of which was unlawfully acquired.
"In the lawsuit, attorneys representing Hunter Biden state that they have demanded Defendants Giuliani and Costello to cease their unlawful activities involving Plaintiffs data and to return any data belonging to Plaintiff that is currently in their possession. However, the defendants have refused to comply with this request. The statements made by the defendants imply that their unlawful hacking activities are still ongoing and will continue in the future unless they are stopped. This necessitates the present legal action.
This lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions initiated by Hunter Biden as he adopts an assertive legal approach to address those who oppose him. It is filed amidst a Republican-led impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, which also investigates Hunter Biden's business dealings."
"Those responsible for the theft and manipulation of Hunter's data should be feeling a sense of imminent consequences," a source from Hunter's legal team informed CNN.
In a parallel civil lawsuit filed earlier this month, Hunter Biden accused former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler of dedicating a significant amount of his time and energy to attempting unauthorized access to devices allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden. Additionally, Hunter Biden recently initiated legal action against the Internal Revenue Service, alleging that the agency unlawfully disclosed his tax information and failed to safeguard his confidential records.
This lawsuit further compounds Rudy Giuliani's already extensive legal troubles, as he grapples with various civil and criminal cases related to his post-2020 election activities. CNN has contacted Giuliani and Costello for their response.
Hunter Biden's lawyers claim in the lawsuit that the former mayor of New York not only admitted to but also boasted about transferring data from the Plaintiffs' laptop (despite only having a hard drive) onto his computer. Additionally, Giuliani allegedly used his computer to access, alter, and manipulate the downloaded information, while also maintaining multiple copies for personal use. To support their claim, the lawyers referred to an episode of Giuliani's podcast, Americas Mayor Live, which aired in February 2023. In the video, Giuliani can be seen holding a laptop computer and declaring, "This belongs to Hunter Biden."
In the lawsuit, it is alleged that Giuliani and Costello have violated federal and California state computer privacy laws by boasting about their actions of duplicating Plaintiffs' data on their personal computer and gaining unauthorized access to, examining, and altering the transferred data. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial for this matter.
This story has been updated with the additional information and details.