President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, is dropping his lawsuit accusing former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) and the mayor’s ex-lawyer Robert Costello of manipulating data found on his laptop.
Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, filed for the lawsuit’s dismissal on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Lowell asked the U.S. District Court to dismiss the lawsuit against Giuliani and Costello without prejudice, with each party bearing its own attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses.
The lawsuit dismissal comes after FBI agent Erika Jensen testified that the laptop was genuine and had not been hacked or manipulated. Jensen’s testimony also debunked claims that the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign aimed at aiding former president Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential bid.
Hunter Biden to drop lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani https://t.co/EjsH2XU20e
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 14, 2024
According to the New York Post, the lawsuit that was filed last September claimed that Giuliani and Costello accessed and tampered with data on Hunter’s laptop, violating the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
As reported by the outlet, the lawsuit initially sought more than $75,000 in damages, attorneys’ fees and other penalties. The lawsuit also claimed that Giuliani and Costello’s actions destroyed Hunter’s privacy and wiped out his personal information and data.
Giuliano’s lawyer, Joe Sibley, believes the lawsuit’s dismissal proves that media outlets and social media companies interfered in the 2020 election by falsely labeling stories about the laptop as hacked or disinformation.
Sibley also views the lawsuit’s dismissal as a vindication for Giuliani and Costello, as well as media outlets that reported on the laptop, which faced censorship from social media and mainstream media.
Hunter Biden drops laptop lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani. https://t.co/4yDIPR0WPC
— The Hill (@thehill) June 15, 2024
After news of the laptop surfaced in 2020, a CNN reporter wrote a false story about the laptop’s origin, claiming it was a Russian fabrication.
Biden later used the story to discredit the laptop’s contents during a debate with Trump. Reportedly, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken planted the story for Biden to use during the debate.
Later on, CNN and other media outlets who reported the story as true eventually admitted the story was false, but only after more than 500 days.
The lawsuit dismissal comes two days after Hunter was found guilty of three federal gun-related charges. He has not yet been sentenced. He is set to go on trial in September on separate tax-related charges.