Hunter Biden’s lawyers sent letters on Wednesday ask for surveys as allies of the former president donald trump who they say trafficked stolen information to his laptop — a dramatic shift in strategy for the president’s son after years of GOP attacks.
Among the letters, which were obtained by NBC News, was one sent Wednesday to the Justice Department’s National Security Division requesting an investigation of “individuals for whom there is substantial reason to believe that they violated various federal laws by accessing, copying, manipulating and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data,” including Rudy Giuliani, who was Trump’s attorney at the time.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys wrote a similar letter to the Delaware Attorney General’s Office, asking for an investigation of the same people for allegedly violating “various laws of Delaware” by accessing Biden’s information from what Trump called ” laptop from hell”.
The Justice Department declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Delaware attorney general did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Information from the laptop has raised questions about Biden’s finances, which have been under investigation by federal prosecutors in Delaware since 2018. They have also been the source of several salacious media stories. conservatives, many of whom focused on his drug use.
Biden has largely kept a low profile during the years of stories – Trump would ask ‘Where’s Hunter?’ at campaign rallies in the 2020 election — but a person familiar with the first-son strategy told NBC News he’s had enough.
“This marks a new approach from Hunter Biden and his team. He is not going to sit still as questionable figures continue to violate his rights and media organizations peddling lies attempt to defame him,” the person said.
Giuliani admitted to passing a copy of the computer hard drive to the New York Post shortly before the 2020 presidential election. The letters to investigators also recommend an investigation into John Paul Mac Isaac, who said Biden had dropped the water-damaged laptop at his Wilmington, Delaware computer repair store.
“Mr. Mac Isaac chose to work with President Donald Trump’s personal attorney to weaponize Mr. Biden’s personal computer data against his father, Joseph R. Biden, by unlawfully causing Mr. Biden’s personal data to be provided to the New York Post,” the letter said.
He accused Mac Isaac and others of “theft of computer services” and Giuliani and others of “possession of stolen property”.
Although Biden has previously deflected comments on the legitimacy of the various emails and images, the letters appear to acknowledge that at least some are – but said Biden was unsure of how many.
The letters say assessing the data was “extremely difficult because for months neither the New York Post” nor its source for the material, President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, were willing to share. “this data with the public”. More recently, downstream recipients of what was believed to be Mr. Biden’s hard drive reported anomalies in the data, suggesting manipulation of it. »
In another letter sent Wednesday, Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, asked the Internal Revenue Service to review the tax-exempt status of a charity headed by Garrett Ziegler, who Biden says downloaded the data he obtained from Giuliani on the charity’s website.
The letter says the organization has “operated only a thinly disguised political operation to attack the Biden administration and the Biden family,” contrary to regulations that state these groups “may not engage in any campaign activity for or against political candidates”.
The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Biden’s lawyers also sent a letter to Fox News and host Tucker Carlson demanding the retraction of “false and defamatory statements made by Mr. Carlson on his show” about Hunter Biden.
The story incorrectly implied that Hunter Biden was involved in a “money laundering scheme to fund President Biden’s lifestyle” by paying him $50,000 a month in rent. The story was quickly debunked, but Carlson never retracted it, the letter states.
The letter also warns Carlson and the network “of potential litigation” and demands that they retain all documents relating to the story.
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.