Hunter Biden's lawsuit in jeopardy after rental home damaged in Palisades fire, financial woes mount

Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times on Mar 6, 2025

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Citing financial problems, Hunter Biden this week asked a federal judge to drop the laptop hacking lawsuit he filed against a former Trump administration aide in 2023.

The lawsuit accused Garrett Ziegler, a former aide to White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, of improperly "accessing, tampering with, manipulating, altering, copying and damaging computer data that they do not own" in violation of the state's computer fraud laws.

"While I believe in the merits of this case, and indeed, note that Defendant Garrett Ziegler admitted to hacking my iCloud in multiple public statements, I am requesting to dismiss this action because I do not have the financial resources to continue litigating this case," Biden wrote in a declaration filed in federal court in California on Wednesday.

His income has declined significantly since the lawsuit was filed, he wrote. His rental home was also damaged in the Palisades fire in January, which further exacerbated his money challenges, he wrote.

An attorney representing Ziegler did not immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment Thursday. Biden's attorney also did not immediately return a phone call from the Los Angeles Times.

Biden's income had primarily come from sales of his artwork and his memoir "Beautiful Things," according to his declaration. In the few years before December 2023, Biden said he sold 27 pieces of art "at an average price of $54,481.48," but since then he's sold only one piece for $36,000. His book sales have also declined, the document states.

"Given the positive feedback and reviews of my artwork and memoir, I was expecting to obtain paid speaking engagements and paid appearances, but that has not happened," Biden wrote. He added that he's grappling with "significant debt, which has been reported in the press as being several million dollars."

The legal saga had centered on Biden's infamous laptop, which the former president's son had allegedly left at a repair shop in Delaware. The laptop was discovered by Republican operatives weeks before the 2020 election and prompted a litany of allegations against the Biden family.

The nonprofit organization Ziegler founded, Marco Polo, published thousands of Biden's emails, intimate photos, text messages and other documents purportedly from Biden's iPhone backup and cloud storage, according to the lawsuit.

"In the western world I'm confident that nobody has dug into the American first family more than us," Ziegler said in a interview on YouTube in 2023.

Biden has also faced personal legal problems in the past year. He was convicted in June of three federal crimes related to the purchase of a firearm and, in September, pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges.

However, he was pardoned by his father shortly before the former president left office. Former President Joe Biden at the time claimed Hunter was the victim of unfair political attacks.

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