• @dynamojoe@lemmy.world
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    779 months ago

    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.

    • @MagicShel@programming.dev
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • @Madison420@lemmy.world
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        309 months ago

        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.

        • @perviouslyiner@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          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)

    • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】
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      9 months ago

      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

    • Flying Squid
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      99 months ago

      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?

    • @gastationsushi@lemmy.world
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      79 months ago

      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.

      • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】
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        9 months ago

        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.

    • TechyDad
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      49 months ago

      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.

        • TechyDad
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          39 months ago

          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.

          • @cricket97@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            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.

            • TechyDad
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              29 months ago

              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.

              • @cricket97@lemmy.world
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                09 months ago

                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.

                • TechyDad
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                  19 months ago

                  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.

  • @CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    119 months ago

    It sure would be good to dig into this and find out more about the supposed narrative about the hard drive, oops, I mean, “laptop”.

  • @ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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    119 months ago

    This is great, and I honestly hope he prevails, but . . .

    The suit that I personally REALLY want to see, but never will because Congress is protected, is Hunter Biden suing the ever lovin’ fuck out of that human toilet brush MTG for making his blown-up-to-poster-size and displayed nudes part of a Congressional inquiry.

    If this is all he can legally do, it’s all he can legally do. But that **** should have been ridden out of office for that, and by members of her own party. That she is still there is a reproach to the office itself.

      • TechyDad
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        29 months ago

        Some of the data on the laptop was likely Hunter’s. Now, whether it originated on that laptop or whether it was added later to “prove it was his” is a different story.

        Similarly, the laptop could have been his, but the “let’s do illegal stuff” emails could have been added later (and backdated) in an attempt to “prove” that he did illegal things and that Joe Biden did as well.

    • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】
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      9 months ago

      Each side presents allegations and defenses publicly after due notice, as adversaries, before a neutral tribunal, and if the facts are genuinely in dispute after reasonable discovery, you put the evidence before a jury of our peers.

    • TechyDad
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      19 months ago

      The truth is likely that the laptop wasn’t real, but some of the data was. It’s easy to grab some personal data from someone (say, via their actual computer after it’s been hacked) and then load it onto another laptop. Then you claim that this laptop was the actual source of the data and that it being abandoned gave you the right to look through it. (It doesn’t.)

      The must insidious part of this is that you could mix fake data alongside the real data. Got Hunter Biden nudes from your hacking? Toss them in an “email” that he was sending and then write up another email which “proves” that Joe Biden sold his position for personal profit. The nudes email can seem legit enough that it raises the believability of your “smoking gun” email.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    49 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    He and Costello have said they were provided the hard drive in 2020 by a Delaware computer repair shop owner who claims Hunter Biden dropped off the laptop the year before and never returned to retrieve it.

    The lawsuit against Giuliani and Costello claims they used Hunter Biden’s username to gain access to his data, making copies and sharing it with allies such as Steve Bannon.

    Last year, Brian Della Rocca, a lawyer for Mac Isaac, provided to CBS News what he called an “exact copy” of laptop data given by his client to federal investigators in 2019.

    But some versions of the hard drive circulated later appeared to have had data added after April 2019, a sign they could have been tampered with, according to reports in other media outlets, including The Washington Post.

    In February, his attorney, Abbe Lowell, sent letters to 14 prominent Republican media personalities and former officials who had accused Hunter Biden of corruption or disseminated material purporting to be from the laptop.

    Giuliani was indicted by a Fulton County, Georgia grand jury on Aug. 15, along with former President Donald Trump and 17 others, and accused of taking part in a “criminal enterprise” while trying to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.


    The original article contains 732 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • @iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Masons and mafia are taking over America.

    They gotta get their shit right instead of pushing alt right.

    Giuliani didn’t end NYC crime… he joined it.