Repair Shop Owner at Center of Hunter Biden Scandal Sues Twitter

Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, waits for the start of his father's debate at Centre College in Danville, Ky., on Oct. 11, 2012. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

The repair shop owner who obtained a laptop computer that appeared to have belonged to Hunter Biden is suing Twitter for defamation, claiming he was unfairly branded a “hacker” by the social media platform’s content moderation policies.

John Paul Mac Isaac, who owned a computer repair shop in Delaware, said weeks earlier that he was forced to close down after death threats in the wake of the laptop saga, released a video challenging the narrative that the computer was hacked.

A New York Post article detailing the contents of the laptop that purportedly belonged to former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, was initially banned by Twitter. The company cited its hacked materials policy.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told Congress in October that the company didn’t know if the materials were from a hack. The story “showed the direct materials and screenshots of the materials and it’s unclear how they were obtained.” Dorsey said Twitter’s team made a mistake.

A man walks past "The Mac Shop" in Wilmington, Delaware on Ocrt 21, 2020. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Isaac is now suing the tech company for defamation in U.S. District Court, claiming in his lawsuit that Twitter decided to “communicate to the world that [Mac Isaac] is a hacker.”

The lawsuit (pdf) alleges that following Twitter’s moderation he was personally threatened, his business received negative reviews and threats, and that he is now “widely considered a hacker.”

Twitter acted with “malicious intent” in claiming that Isaac hacked the laptop that appeared to have belonged to Hunter Biden, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit seeks a public retraction from Twitter and $500 million in damages.

Isaac said in his video earlier this month that it’s “completely absurd” that he was labeled a Russian agent or under the influence of Russia.

“Another term that I’ve been labeled—which unfortunately is a death sentence in my industry—is ‘hacker.’ For the record, I am not, nor have I ever been, a hacker. Those guys make so much more money than I did. I was hired, and never paid, to perform a data transfer from a MacBook Pro to an external hard drive,” he said.

“The signed paperwork clearly states the process and sets the expectations. There’s no magic or Hollywood; the process is no different than dragging and dropping from a USB drive. The only difference is that I had to perform some surgery on the Mac to get it to boot to the point where I could recover the data. To imply that I’m a hacker and that that information is hacked has had an irreversible impact on my business and my character.”

Hunter Biden is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware. Prosecutors have declined to comment, citing Department of Justice policy about not commenting on ongoing investigations.

Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.