Reading Legal Pleadings For Fun And Profit

Hunter Biden sues computer repair shop owner who worked on a laptop, accusing him of trying to invade his privacy https://t.co/hPoA9VkeFK

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 17, 2023

Lots of low-level brouhaha over Hunter Biden “suing” Mac Isaac for releasing information on HUNTER BIDEN’S LAPTOP 💻! Well, the first correction is that it’s not a suit, it’s a countersuit. That’s actually an important distinction.

Mac Isaac has sued Biden for defamation. Biden has countersued for invasion of privacy. Which, as a legal strategy, actually makes sense. It’s not necessarily a claim Biden might have pursued independently, but it both establishes both a solid defense, and makes Mac Isaac wish he hadn’t sued in the first place. Now Mac Isaac has a lot more skin in the game, and Biden can go on offense, as well as investigate where this information he claims was improperly leaked, came from.

Because Biden is not admitting the laptop was his (or even the source of the information), which is another important distinction.

In simplest terms, Biden is bolstering his defense by not only claiming Mac Isaac doesn’t have a case (Biden argues Mac Isaac fails to state a claim, which means there is no there, there), but also that Biden was damaged by Mac Isaac’s actions (publishing and disseminating private data in violation of law). That’s a sensible strategy that opens the door to discovery of how Mac Isaac got this information. This is a strong step beyond “I didn’t defame him,” and well into “this is part of a conspiracy against Joe Biden’s candidacy.” A theory that explains why so many in Trump’s orbit wanted this story better publicized at the time.

In terms critical to how this is being portrayed by Biden’s critics, and supporters of HUNTER BIDEN’S LAPTOP 💻!, this counterclaim admits the data is Biden’s private property, but questions where it came from, right down to the contradictory claims by Mac Isaac that Biden didn’t, and then did, leave a laptop for repair.

Here are the three conflicting claims that Mac Isaac has made about his certainty that the person who dropped off "the laptop" was Hunter Biden. pic.twitter.com/FizwG2TM0H

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) March 17, 2023

Mac Isaac is going to be a most unreliable witness, just based on published information cited in this pleading. The HBL 💻 people shouldn’t get too excited about the idea Biden has admitted the laptop was his (he hasn’t). This countersuit is going to wash that away with the attention paid to all the lies surrounding this story, and the renewed focus on “Where the hell did this information come from, and why were so many people so anxious to spread it?”

Area Substacker would like you to know that he's so painfully stupid he can't tell the difference between DATA and a LAPTOP. pic.twitter.com/50EDQxeSHV

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) March 17, 2023

ASS (and others) really need to read the pleadings. There’s a world of difference between countersuing for invasion of privacy (an effective defense, in this case. Indeed, it would be tantamount to malpractice not to.) and admitting (which the pleading still specifically denies) that the laptop story is true and can be trusted.

Then again, ASS hasn’t been much of a lawyer for years.

The story of HUNTER BIDEN’S LAPTOP 💻! is fixing to go through some things.