The source for the
New York Post story published
in October on Hunter Biden’s computer files has sued Twitter for $500 million in damages, claiming the social-media company defamed him by calling him a “hacker.”
Biden’s laptop was dropped off at a computer repair shop in Delaware owned by John Paul Mac Isaac earlier this year. A New York Post story published
before the presidential election claimed documents from Biden’s hard drive showed he was involved with dealings in Ukraine.
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That information was allegedly obtained by President
Trump’s attorney, Rudy Guiliani, and shared with the NYP.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Monday. On the same
day, a Miami federal judge dismissed the case, ruling “the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction” because the suit says Mac Isaac is a citizen of Delaware and Twitter is incorporated
there. (Plaintiffs cannot share a “state of citizenship” with defendants.)
The suit can be refiled.
Mac Isaac claims in the suit that he did not know
the NYP would publish content from Biden's laptop.
“Plaintiff was unaware the NY POST had information from the hard drive or that a story was going to be
published,” the lawsuit reads. “Plaintiff did not want his name released to the public nor did he give authorization to Giuliani, [Giuliani’s attorney] Costello, or the NY POST to
release his name.”
The suit claims Isaac was forced to close his Delaware shop.
Twitter blocked users from sharing the
NYP story on the platform. The platform deemed
the report “potentially harmful” leading up to the election. It also said the story violated its rules against sharing “hacked materials.”
“Plaintiff is not
a hacker and the information obtained from the computer does not [include] hacked materials because Plaintiff lawfully gained access to the computer, first with the permission of its owner, Biden, and
then, after Biden failed to retrieve the hard drive despite Plaintiff’s requests, in accordance with the Mac Shop’s abandoned property policy,” reads the suit.
Twitter has since changed its policy. Instead of blocking posts that link to content that may contain “hacked materials,” the platform adds warning labels to those posts.