Hunter Biden (left) is suing former Trump aide Garrett Ziegler (right).Paul Morigi/Getty and WikimediaA federal lawsuit filed by Hunter Biden accuses former Trump aide Garrett Ziegler of hacking his data.
Ziegler denied the allegations and told Insider that he came by the data legally from Biden’s laptop.
The case opens a second front in the war between the Bidens and the GOP. It could also impact First Amendment protections for opposition research.
Lawyers representing Hunter Biden have filed a civil lawsuit in federal court against Garrett Ziegler, a former aide in the Trump White House who has since become a key figure in collecting and publicizing data alleged to have been obtained from one of Biden’s abandoned laptops.
The suit alleges that Ziegler violated laws against hacking and fraud. It also claims that his team manipulated and altered some of the data, although it does not specify how other than redacting explicit photos that appear to show Biden naked, sometimes in the company of sex workers.
The lawsuit signals the opening of a second front in the emerging legal battle between GOP hardliners who want to impeach Biden’s father, President Joe Biden, and Hunter Biden’s camp, who say he is being unfairly targeted and that President Biden did nothing wrong. It could also redraw the legal boundaries around “opposition research,” the longstanding practice of gathering as much derogatory information as possible on a political candidate in order to influence the outcome of an election. As media outlets have trimmed back spending on foreign bureaus and long-term investigations, they have grown increasingly reliant on tips developed by private researchers with bigger budgets and fewer ethical constraints. The Hunter Biden laptop story is only the latest fruit of opposition research to make headlines. Derogatory stories about the Clinton Fo ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
