Who is John Paul Mac Isaac? Delaware computer repairman behind Hunter Biden's 'laptop from hell' sues Twitter
A computer repairman in Delaware who garnered national attention after furnishing bombshell contents of Hunter Biden's now-infamous laptop is now suing Twitter for branding him a "hacker." The New York Post published a tranche of damaging documents in October after they were found on the laptop that was left behind at John Paul Mac Isaac’s repair store in April 2019 but never collected by the owner. Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings, as documented in several emails, are now part of a federal investigation into President-elect Joe Biden's son.
Twitter attempted to restrict the contents of the email and blocked users from sharing them online, claiming the Post's reporting had relied on "hacked materials." However, the social media giant is now facing a lawsuit for defamation in US District Court - claiming the company decided to “communicate to the world that [Mac Isaac] is a hacker.”
According to Isaac, his business has received several threats and targeted negative reviews after Twitter's actions. He says he is "now widely considered a hacker" and has suffered from personal threats as well. The Delaware business owner said in his suit that he was forced to close his store owing to the backlash and that Twitter had acted with “malicious intent” by claiming that he had "hacked" into what President Donald Trump has called "the laptop from hell." Isaac has now demanded a public retraction from the company and a staggering $500 million in damages.
A Twitter spokesperson refused to comment on the suit.
The customer who brought in the MacBook Pro and hard drive for repair in 2019 neither paid for the service nor retrieved the devices, Isaac said. He had tried multiple times to contact the client, but to no avail. Isaac made a copy of the hard drive and gave it to former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello. He subsequently turned over the laptop to the FBI in December. The existence of the hard drive was revealed to The Post by Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon in late September. Meanwhile, Giuliani provided the newspaper with a copy of the same.
Isaac said in his suit that he had no idea that the Post had plans to publish the contents of the laptop. “Plaintiff was unaware that the NY POST had information from the hard drive or that a story was going to be published,” the suit read. “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.”
In late October, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was summoned by Congress to explain their unprecedented censoring of said articles as well as the platform's decision to lock the Post's account for over a fortnight. Dorsey later admitted that the decision was a mistake.
Emails and text messages published by the Post gave a glimpse into some of Hunter Biden's business dealings in China and Ukraine. They also revealed how he allegedly sought to profit off his father's high office.
Now, federal investigators are reportedly probing whether Hunter and his business associates had violated tax and money laundering laws. In a report on Hunter's business affairs released in September, Senate Republicans claimed that he “and his family were involved in a vast financial network that connected them to foreign nationals and foreign governments across the globe.”