Hunter Biden has decided that he’s tired of being a punching bag, so he’s going to start fighting back. He’s now filed a lawsuit against the computer repair shop owner for allegedly violating his privacy. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: Hunter Biden has decided that he’s tired of being a punching bag, so he’s gonna start fighting back. He’s now filed a lawsuit against the computer repair shop owner for violating his privacy. Okay. Why don’t you lead with this story.
Farron Cousins: This is really interesting to me, just because of the potential legal ramification, not for Hunter Biden, not for the laptop repair owner, but for actual real Americans, this case could impact you.
Mike Papantonio: Totally.
Farron Cousins: So here’s what it is. Hunter Biden’s laptop obviously ends up in the hands of John Paul Mac Isaac at his laptop repair shop. Nobody ever comes to pick it up. As far as I know, nobody paid for the repairs. So store policy, you didn’t pay for it, you didn’t pick it up. The time passed, this is now my laptop. And from there, of course we know that the photos on there, the information was then given to people like Rudy Giuliani and Tucker Carlson. And so now, you know, a couple years later, Hunter Biden says, this is a violation of my privacy. You’ve released items that did not belong to you. So I’m suing. But the question is, who did they belong to because of him leaving the laptop?
Mike Papantonio: Okay. Now let’s, okay. First of all, that analysis is brilliant.
Farron Cousins: Thank you.
Mike Papantonio: It’s brilliant. The question becomes, and it becomes, it’s gonna become a question more and more because does that computer repairman own the computer? Does he have the right to use the computer or does he have the right to use the content of the computer? That’s where you’re, that’s the point you’re making there, right?
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: Okay. Here’s the problem I see for Hunter Biden. When you bring a case like that, you open the door to almost limitless cross-examination. All right. So if I’m cross-examining, if I’m cross-examining Hunter, I’m saying, okay, now which part of the information in that computer was not already public? Was it your relationship with prostitutes? Was it your relationship with Ukraine or China? Was it your story about your baby mama, you not paying her, you know, child support? You see the problem?
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: You’re gonna hear the very worst of the attacks coming up again. And he’s gotta say, well, the violation of my privacy was A, B and C. But if A, B and C is already in the public domain, there’s no violation of privacy. Period. But your point, I think is a brilliant point. The point is, who owns, what is it that that shop owner actually has the right to own, the physical computer or the contents of the computer?
Farron Cousins: Right. And so one of the things that we know that came out the computer were all the pictures of Hunter Biden. And there are pictures that obviously depict drug use and things like that, the M&M thing. So do those pictures upon forfeiture of the laptop, does the owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, is he now the intellectual property rights owner of those photographs? Or does that stick with Hunter Biden? That is a question the courts have not ever answered.
Mike Papantonio: And I’m saying to you, by this lawyer advising him to do this, a lawyer on the other side is going to be attacking Hunter Biden saying, let’s go through the litany of everything, the prostitutes, the drug use, whatever it is, let’s go through the litany. You tell me what part is a violation of your privacy. But as he goes through that litany, it’s all just another big public explosion about that issue. Issues that people will forget about. Well, they won’t forget about it if the cross-examination is done properly on Hunter Biden.
Farron Cousins: Right. And if Hunter’s lawyers screw this up badly enough to where this gets appealed and appealed and appealed, then we could be looking at the Supreme Court deciding who owns your photographs on your device.
Mike Papantonio: That’s right.
Farron Cousins: You know, because a lot of people.
Mike Papantonio: And think what that does to the tech industry.
Farron Cousins: Well, exactly. Because when you buy a phone and the people who buy it on the payment plan and pay every month, if you don’t pay, you forfeit that phone. So suddenly does that mean AT&T or Apple now own all your photographs.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: That is what this case has the potential if it goes up there.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. I love your analysis there.
Farron Cousins: We could lose a lot of rights with this case.
Mike Papantonio: I love your analysis there. I think it’s very smart.
Farron Cousins: Thank you.
