I wonder what the actual legal disposition of the laptop is. Was it truly abandoned or was it a “don’t return it to the customer; say we’re still working on it” thing? How did Rudy get possession of the laptop, and once he logged into it did the laptop did he access anything like email or cloud services (and if so, how is that not illegal access to someone else’s data)? Rudy and his lawyer have much to answer for. Dis gon’ be guuud.
To be honest, I never believed the laptop was real. The story about it is so fucking bonkers it beggars belief. Epstein’s assassination is more plausible than “I had it through the most unlikely of circumstances, honest. But then I lost it. But just believe me, it had really incriminating stuff on it! Even before I tampered with it!”
I feel like there is still something significantly missing from the story. Although, Giuliani does continue to surprise me with stupidity and incompetence. Maybe it really is just that simple.
The laptop was probably real but I suspect the drive was cleared and this is recovered data or that the hard drive was simply copied illegally prior to the repair.
Or the data came from a Russian hacking group and just got put onto a random laptop for “evidence-laundering” (whatever the term is for that in this sort of situation)
If you can determine who property belongs to, it is not abandoned until the owner manifests a clear intent not to retrieve it. That’s the law of personal property.
Also at play here is the law of bailments. One who charges a fee to hold the property of another had created a contact for bailment. If the owner doesn’t retrieve it after a fixed term, an involuntary bailment is created, and the bailor must safeguard and hold the property for a reasonable time, after which it may be considered abandoned (if the owner manifests an intent not to retrieve it).
I have not read the complaint but I will be on the lookout.
And here’s it is. I will parse it as time permits.
The thing that is so weird to me about this whole thing is that they haven’t produced the laptop and Hunter’s team haven’t asked them to produce the laptop. Why?
I read somewhere saying some of the contents on the laptop disk were older than the hardware itself. There can be lot’s of reasons for this, but don’t be surprised if Hunter’s legal team has undeniable proof the contents were hacked and stolen from Hunter and loaded on this repair shop owned laptop in an attempt to make a story national news would cover.
The complaint sort of reads that way, as if the data was around for years and at various times Guilliani and others tried to obtain additional, legit data to intersperse into the “laptop data,” in order to make the whole of it seem authentic. The lawsuit admits that some of the data is in fact legit.
Rudy has admitted to copying the contents of the laptop to his own hard drive. That’s a crime. At most, if you get possession of someone’s abandoned laptop, you can wipe the drive and use the factory reset laptop as your own. You don’t get to copy the data and use it as you see fit, though.
There were digital “locks” to prevent people from reading the data. Giuliani (or, more likely, someone working for him) bypassed those locks to get the data. If you sneak into someone’s room, rip off the lock on their diary, take photos of various pages, and then share those with people online, you can definitely face civil charges.
the computer was unencrypted. there were no locks in place. “sneaking into someones room” is not a valid comparison when this laptop was dropped off there and never picked up.
A computer doesn’t need to be encrypted. It can just have a password to count as breaking into it/invasion of privacy.
Of course, all this assumes that the laptop was real in the first place. What also could have happened is that Rudy got his hands on some of Hunter Biden’s files (for example, via some group hacking Hunter’s actual computer). Then, they could toss those files on a laptop along with “evidence” that they manufactured (e.g. made up emails from Hunter about all the crimes he was going to crime). Then they would pull the hard drive and wave it around as iron-clad evidence.
With this method, Rudy would be mixing actual Hunter Biden content (e.g. the photos) with made up content to try to make the fictional content look legitimate. It would also count as an invasion of privacy since Rudy would have had to obtain those photos in an illegal manner and wouldn’t have had the right to distribute them.
A computer doesn’t need to be encrypted. It can just have a password to count as breaking into it/invasion of privacy.
Not when it became the store’s property, which it did under Delaware law. All the files on the computer are unencrypted, there is no password protecting any of that. You can simply plug in the drive into another computer and explore at will.
What also could have happened is that Rudy got his hands on some of Hunter Biden’s files (for example, via some group hacking Hunter’s actual computer). Then, they could toss those files on a laptop along with “evidence” that they manufactured (e.g. made up emails from Hunter about all the crimes he was going to crime). Then they would pull the hard drive and wave it around as iron-clad evidence.
While that could have happened, there is no evidence at all of this. You can’t pitch conspiracy theories as if they’re real.
Again, that’s assuming that everything came off the laptop and that the laptop was actually abandoned. We’ve never gotten the full story on that. The laptop could have been Hunter Biden’s, but wasn’t abandoned. It could have just had the data copied off of it when the person was working on it. Or the shop could have told Hunter that the laptop was a loss and that they wiped it.
In either of these cases, the data wouldn’t be the shop’s to give away and definitely wouldn’t be Rudy’s to parade on national TV. And that still doesn’t factor in that the laptop might not have been Hunter’s in the first place, but could have been loaded with data from Hunter (obtained via illicit means) in an effort to make it look like Hunter’s laptop.
So far, we’ve gotten the right’s narrative about the laptop’s origins. This doesn’t mean that it’s the truth.
I wonder what the actual legal disposition of the laptop is. Was it truly abandoned or was it a “don’t return it to the customer; say we’re still working on it” thing? How did Rudy get possession of the laptop, and once he logged into it did the laptop did he access anything like email or cloud services (and if so, how is that not illegal access to someone else’s data)? Rudy and his lawyer have much to answer for. Dis gon’ be guuud.
To be honest, I never believed the laptop was real. The story about it is so fucking bonkers it beggars belief. Epstein’s assassination is more plausible than “I had it through the most unlikely of circumstances, honest. But then I lost it. But just believe me, it had really incriminating stuff on it! Even before I tampered with it!”
I feel like there is still something significantly missing from the story. Although, Giuliani does continue to surprise me with stupidity and incompetence. Maybe it really is just that simple.
The laptop was probably real but I suspect the drive was cleared and this is recovered data or that the hard drive was simply copied illegally prior to the repair.
Or the data came from a Russian hacking group and just got put onto a random laptop for “evidence-laundering” (whatever the term is for that in this sort of situation)
If you can determine who property belongs to, it is not abandoned until the owner manifests a clear intent not to retrieve it. That’s the law of personal property.
Also at play here is the law of bailments. One who charges a fee to hold the property of another had created a contact for bailment. If the owner doesn’t retrieve it after a fixed term, an involuntary bailment is created, and the bailor must safeguard and hold the property for a reasonable time, after which it may be considered abandoned (if the owner manifests an intent not to retrieve it).
I have not read the complaint but I will be on the lookout.
And here’s it is. I will parse it as time permits.
https://www.scribd.com/document/673740262/Hunter-Biden-Complaint-Against-Giuliani
The thing that is so weird to me about this whole thing is that they haven’t produced the laptop and Hunter’s team haven’t asked them to produce the laptop. Why?
The FBI has had the laptop since 2019.
source?
MSN
CNN
SNOPES
I read somewhere saying some of the contents on the laptop disk were older than the hardware itself. There can be lot’s of reasons for this, but don’t be surprised if Hunter’s legal team has undeniable proof the contents were hacked and stolen from Hunter and loaded on this repair shop owned laptop in an attempt to make a story national news would cover.
The complaint sort of reads that way, as if the data was around for years and at various times Guilliani and others tried to obtain additional, legit data to intersperse into the “laptop data,” in order to make the whole of it seem authentic. The lawsuit admits that some of the data is in fact legit.
Rudy has admitted to copying the contents of the laptop to his own hard drive. That’s a crime. At most, if you get possession of someone’s abandoned laptop, you can wipe the drive and use the factory reset laptop as your own. You don’t get to copy the data and use it as you see fit, though.
What crime is it? Is it illegal to pick up someones diary and read it?
There were digital “locks” to prevent people from reading the data. Giuliani (or, more likely, someone working for him) bypassed those locks to get the data. If you sneak into someone’s room, rip off the lock on their diary, take photos of various pages, and then share those with people online, you can definitely face civil charges.
the computer was unencrypted. there were no locks in place. “sneaking into someones room” is not a valid comparison when this laptop was dropped off there and never picked up.
A computer doesn’t need to be encrypted. It can just have a password to count as breaking into it/invasion of privacy.
Of course, all this assumes that the laptop was real in the first place. What also could have happened is that Rudy got his hands on some of Hunter Biden’s files (for example, via some group hacking Hunter’s actual computer). Then, they could toss those files on a laptop along with “evidence” that they manufactured (e.g. made up emails from Hunter about all the crimes he was going to crime). Then they would pull the hard drive and wave it around as iron-clad evidence.
With this method, Rudy would be mixing actual Hunter Biden content (e.g. the photos) with made up content to try to make the fictional content look legitimate. It would also count as an invasion of privacy since Rudy would have had to obtain those photos in an illegal manner and wouldn’t have had the right to distribute them.
Not when it became the store’s property, which it did under Delaware law. All the files on the computer are unencrypted, there is no password protecting any of that. You can simply plug in the drive into another computer and explore at will.
While that could have happened, there is no evidence at all of this. You can’t pitch conspiracy theories as if they’re real.
Again, that’s assuming that everything came off the laptop and that the laptop was actually abandoned. We’ve never gotten the full story on that. The laptop could have been Hunter Biden’s, but wasn’t abandoned. It could have just had the data copied off of it when the person was working on it. Or the shop could have told Hunter that the laptop was a loss and that they wiped it.
In either of these cases, the data wouldn’t be the shop’s to give away and definitely wouldn’t be Rudy’s to parade on national TV. And that still doesn’t factor in that the laptop might not have been Hunter’s in the first place, but could have been loaded with data from Hunter (obtained via illicit means) in an effort to make it look like Hunter’s laptop.
So far, we’ve gotten the right’s narrative about the laptop’s origins. This doesn’t mean that it’s the truth.
You are just making up a conspiracy theory with 0 evidence. Don’t be surprised that I’m dismissing it. We could spend all day saying “well what if…”