WILL HUNTER BIDEN'S LAPTOP GET JOE OFF THE HOOK?
Believe it or not, there might be something good for Joe Biden that comes from Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop that was left at a Delaware computer shop for repair and never claimed.
Hunter Biden, who appears to plead ignorance in response to allegations contained in previous documents and neither admits nor denies ownership of the subject laptop, has filed a countersuit in US District Court in Delaware alleging that computer shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, had no legal right to copy and disseminate the contents of the laptop that was abandoned at his Delaware store in 2019.
“Mr. Biden is without knowledge sufficient to admit or deny the allegations in paragraph xx.”
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FACTUAL BACKGROUND Possession of Electronic Data that Mac Isaac Claims to Be Hunter Biden’s In or before April 2019, Counterclaim Defendant Mac Isaac, by whatever means, came into possession of certain electronically stored data, at least some of which belonged to Counterclaim Plaintiff Biden. Mac Isaac claims that he obtained lawful possession of the data because it was contained on a laptop that Mr. Biden left behind at Mac Isaac’s repair shop (the Mac Shop) and that a Repair Authorization form, allegedly signed by Mr. Biden, provided that “equipment left with the Mac Shop after 90 days of notification of completed service will be treated as abandoned and you agree to hold the Mac Shop harmless for any damage or loss of property.” Mac Isaac further claims that because Mr. Biden never returned to the repair shop to retrieve his recovered data, Mac Isaac is thereby the rightful owner to the equipment under the terms of the Repair Authorization form. Footnote: This is not an admission by Mr. Biden that Mac Isaac (or others) in fact possessed any particular laptop containing electronically stored data belonging to Mr. Biden. Rather, Mr. Biden simply acknowledges that at some point, Mac Isaac obtained electronically stored data, some of which belonged to Mr. Biden. [OCS: What follows is a discussion of Delaware law setting forth the procedures required to exert a claim on abandoned property and that Mac Issac allegedly did not follow those procedures and lacked a valid claim to the laptop.] Moreover, even if the Repair Authorization form were enforceable under Delaware law, by its own terms, it provides abandonment of only any “equipment” that is left behind at the Mac Shop, and not the data on or embedded within any such equipment. In fact, the Repair Authorization form states that the Mac Shop will make every effort to “secure your data.” Customers who sign Mac Isaac’s Repair Authorization form do not waive any rights under Delaware law for the data that any equipment might contain. Reputable computer companies and repair people routinely delete personal data contained on devices that are exchanged, left behind, or abandoned. They do not open, copy, and then provide that data to others, as Mac Isaac did here. <Source: Case 1:23-cv-00247-MN Document 11 Filed 03/17/23 in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.> |
Remember Best Buy’s Geek Squad matter?
FBI Used Paid Informants On Best Buy's Geek Squad To Flag Child Pornography
The FBI paid Best Buy Geek Squad employees as informants, rewarding them for flagging indecent material when people brought their computers in for repair.
That's according to documents released to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital civil liberties organization, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records that might show warrantless searches of people's devices.
EFF filed its complaint last year after revelations about the FBI's interactions with Geek Squad technicians emerged in the case of Mark Rettenmaier, an Orange County, Calif., physician and surgeon who took his computer in for repair when it wouldn't boot up. Rettenmaier faced child pornography charges after a Geek Squad employee flagged his computer to the FBI.
In May, a federal judge threw out almost all the evidence (which prosecutors said included hundreds of images of child pornography) because of "false and misleading statements" an FBI agent made in an affidavit to get a search warrant for Rettenmaier's house. The government ended up dropping the charges against him. <Source>
[OCS: Once again the FBI appears to have crossed the line with impunity and judicial immunity.]
Bottom line…
In general, the data on an abandoned electronic device is still owned by the person who originally created or stored the data. However, ownership of the device itself may have been transferred or lost through various means, such as theft, abandonment, or sale.
This lawsuit may hold significant implications for the privacy of your data that may be contained on electronic devices, including computers and other equipment for storing data, when they are abandoned, sold, trashed, or returned to an equipment provider.
It may also be the key to getting Joe and his family off the hook, especially if a partisan federal judge ruled that any evidence presented by the prosecution is tainted by the fruit of the poison tree doctrine, which extends the exclusionary rule to make evidence inadmissible in court if it was derived from evidence that was illegally obtained.
We live in perilous times when law enforcement and judicial authorities continue to overstep their constitutional bounds based on their individual beliefs or a partisan political agenda, often without repercussions or sanctions.
We are so screwed.
-- Steve
“Nullius in verba.”-- take nobody's word for it!
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw
“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”
“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius “A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell “Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar “Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS