‘Dangerous Rhetoric’: Hunter Biden Lawyers Tell Trump Cease and Desist Social Media Attacks

(L) Hunter Biden at a state dinner at the White House on June 22, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) / Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Philadelphia, Pa., on June 30, 2023. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Hunter Biden’s lawyers have issued a cease and desist to Donald Trump’s legal team, demanding he not post about Mr. Biden anymore for fear of “physical and violent action” on the part of Mr. Trump’s followers against Mr. Biden or his family.

“I am a little surprised to have to send this because it would seem that Mr. Trump is currently facing enough legal problems that he would not want to create any more liability for saying and doing things that could result in harm and injury, and because it appears you have enough to do in defending your client in various arenas now and yet to come than to have to deal with one more legal issue and case,” wrote attorney Abbe David Lowell, who represents Mr. Biden. The letter, sent Thursday, was first obtained by ABC News.

Mr. Lowell wrote that Mr. Trump’s followers are “easy-to-trigger” and citing Jan. 6, 2021, events and their “tragic, even fatal, consequences” as a reason why something that would normally be a figure of speech cannot be considered so in Mr. Trump’s case.

“We have seen that what might pass as such a phrase when uttered by rationale people is heard by too many in this country as some terrible injustice for which they must take physical and violent action,” Mr. Lowell wrote.

He compared Mr. Biden’s situation with that of Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was attacked in his home last October. Federal officials alleged the attacker, David DePape, was a Canadian citizen who was in the country illegally after overstaying his visa and said he wanted to kidnap the Speaker.

“Mr. Biden was also on that attacker’s hit list,” Mr. Lowell wrote. “This is not a false alarm.”

He did not link the attacker to Mr. Trump’s social media activity, but referenced another case where Taylor Taranto was arrested in the vicinity of former President Barack Obama’s residence after reposting a post of Mr. Trump’s, which contained what he claimed was Mr. Obama’s address.

“We are just one such social media message away from another incident, and you should make clear to Mr. Trump—if you have not done so already—that Mr. Trump’s words have caused harm in the past and threaten to do so again if he does not stop,” Mr. Lowell said.

“Mr. Trump has invoked my client’s name on his social media accounts to harass and incite his followers on a near daily basis since Mr. Trump himself was indicted (e.g., mentioning my client more than 20 times in posts in July alone),” he wrote.

Texts to China

Mr. Lowell cited multiple times when Mr. Trump posted about or reposted and commented on news events that involved the Biden family.

On June 22, two days after Mr. Biden pleaded guilty to federal crimes, the House Ways and Means Committee unveiled the testimonies of two whistleblowers from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) who had been part of the investigation into Mr. Biden’s taxes.

The investigators had validated text messages Mr. Biden sent to a Chinese business partner demanding payment and threatening to use his father’s power and influence in retaliation.

“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” the younger Biden wrote, according to Shapley’s testimony.

“Now means tonight,” Biden said, warning that if anyone other than Zhao, “Zhang, or the chairman” tried to reach out about the matter, “I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.

On June 24, Mr. Trump took to Truth Social to post: “When Hunter Biden harshly threatened the Chinese businessman, he and his father, Joe, were together in Joe’s house (even the ownership of the house, and rent paid, are questionable and now forgotten about by the Fake News Media!) where classified documents having to do with CHINA were stored . . . They took in millions of dollars from China - How much information was given. BIG STUFF! Joe is totally corrupt!!!”

Two days later Mr. Trump reposted “AMERICAN JUSTICE: 69-Year-Old Grandma with Cancer Given More Prison Time for Walking Inside US Capitol than Hunter Biden for Sharing Classified Documents with Foreign Regimes and Multi-Million Dollar Bribery Scheme“ with the comment ”HORRIBLE!” and commented on the news of the U.S. Secret Service discovering cocaine in the White House, writing it “was for use by Hunter, & probably Crooked Joe, in order to give this total disaster of a President a little life and energy!”

Mr. Lowell wrote that Mr. Trump multiple times misled followers and was “writing to demand a stop to this.”

“You know, if Mr. Trump does not, that Mr. Biden has neither committed nor been accused of the charges that your client is claiming (e.g., mishandling or even having access to classified information) and that the Biden family was not at the White House (let alone in the vestibule) in the period when the cocaine was found,” he wrote. “And, let’s be clear: it was Mr. Trump, not Mr. Biden, who allegedly illegally shared classified documents with others and it is Mr. Trump who is accused of paying hush money (e.g., a bribe) to prevent publicity about his personal actions.”