(Washington) The son of US President Joe Biden filed a complaint on Friday against the owner of a computer repair store who disseminated photos of him taken during sex or drug use.
Targeted for years by Republican attacks, Hunter Biden goes on the offensive for the first time, as opposition politicians scrutinize his affairs in China and Ukraine.
The right accuses him of having capitalized on his name and his father’s address book, when the latter was Barack Obama’s vice-president (2009-2017), to enter into dubious contracts in these two countries.
Just before the 2020 presidential election, the conservative New York Post published emails recovered from a laptop purporting to prove that Hunter Biden mixed up his father in his businesses.
During a televised duel, Donald Trump had challenged Joe Biden on this “computer from hell”. The Democrat had retorted that he had “never earned a penny from any foreign source”.
The Biden camp then turned its back on the disclosure of thousands of documents from this laptop, some of which shed harsh light on the escapades of Hunter, who has long suffered from a drug addiction.
Since Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives in January, they have redoubled their attacks using their parliamentary investigative powers.
Also on Thursday, they publicly scoured bank documents purporting to prove that other members of the Biden family, including the president’s brother, profited from Hunter’s business in China.
Faced with this heavy fire, the president’s youngest son set up a legal team a few weeks ago.
On Friday, he kicked things into high gear by filing a “breach of privacy” complaint against the owner of the repair shop, where he allegedly dropped off his laptop but never picked it up.
He accuses John Paul Mac Isaac of having copied and distributed thousands of confidential documents without his authorization. However, “the material he transmitted included photos of Mr. Biden using drugs, without clothes, or in adult-to-adult relationships,” which “damaged his reputation,” according to the complaint. .
Hunter Biden calls for the organization of a trial before a jury, at the risk of a great unpacking at a time when his father, who has made ethics one of the markers of his presidency, seems ready to run for a second term.