LOS ANGELES - Garrett Ziegler of Effingham, Illinois, whose Marco Polo website published data from Hunter Biden’s computer, has asked U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera in Los Angeles to dismiss a suit Biden filed or transfer it to Illinois.
Ziegler’s counsel, Robert Tyler of Murrieta, California, wrote, “Litigating this case in Illinois serves the interests of justice because the evidence is located in Illinois.”
He claimed Biden didn’t meet the burden of proving he’s unable to sue Ziegler in Illinois.
Vera set a hearing Feb. 22.
Biden’s counsel, Abbe Lowell of New York City, sued Ziegler and Marco Polo in September, identifying Biden as a resident of Los Angeles County.
He claimed Ziegler, volunteers, and contractors spent countless hours accessing, tampering with, manipulating, altering, copying and damaging data they did not own.
He alleged violation of national computer fraud law, California computer fraud law, and California unfair competition law.
Lowell claimed the precise manner by which Ziegler obtained Biden’s data remained unclear.
He claimed Ziegler gained access to Biden’s iPhone data by circumventing barriers that were specifically designed and intended to prevent such access.
He added that Ziegler stated in a news report that he hacked into Biden’s data.
He provided a quote from the report, but Ziegler didn’t use the word “hack.”
Lowell claimed Ziegler’s reckless and malicious activities impaired the ability of Biden and others to verify the data and determine the extent of any alleged alteration and damage.
He requested general and punitive damages and disgorgement of all money obtained as a result of wrongful conduct.
He requested an injunction restraining Ziegler, his agents, employees, attorneys, and those in concert with them from accessing, tampering with, manipulating or copying Biden’s data.
Tyler moved to dismiss the complaint on Dec. 21, stating Ziegler prepared the report on the laptop as part of a mission to investigate foreign compromise within government.
He added that mainstream media cited the report more than 300 times and more than six million unique IP addresses have reviewed it on the Marco Polo website.
He claimed the complaint lacked details about any computer Biden claimed Ziegler hacked.
“It mentions an iPhone backup but a backup is a copy of files and programs made to facilitate recovery if necessary, not a computer or storage system itself,” he wrote.
Tyler claimed the complaint falsely suggested Ziegler hacked into Biden’s iPhone backup file.
He claimed Ziegler received a copy of an iPhone backup file and an external hard drive that contained passcodes, which allowed access to the iPhone backup file.
Biden accused Ziegler of accessing and using data without permission, but failed to identify a single device Ziegler accessed without authorization.
Tyler also claimed Biden lacked standing to sue Ziegler in California.
He explained that Ziegler didn’t conduct business in California, his principal place of business wasn’t in California, and Biden couldn’t establish that his injury transpired in California.
He argued that Biden sought to link Ziegler to California through Ziegler’s operation of a website accessible across the world.
Tyler claimed Ninth Circuit appellate judges ruled that websites which merely post information or on which consumers can’t make purchases do not give rise to jurisdiction.
He also rejected application of California computer laws, claiming they protect owners.
“Plaintiff fails to allege and cannot allege that he had any ownership or exclusive right of control over any of the laptop’s files or drives now possessed by third parties,” he wrote.
Tyler argued that state laws don’t authorize a party whose data has been copied to assert a civil action over any computer or device not in their possession.
He claimed Biden didn’t allege any recoverable loss, primarily alleging his loss resulted from investigating and responding to Ziegler's alleged violations of state law.
However, Tyler wrote that state law doesn’t provide for recovery of legal expenses, lost profits, or other damages without a connection to service interruption or response effort.
Last of all, Tyler claimed Vera should dismiss the suit as a form of censorship.
He claimed California code of civil procedure allows a defendant to dismiss an action aimed at chilling the valid exercises of free speech and petitioning for redress of grievances.
The historic laptop remains in possession of the federal bureau of investigation, according to Tyler.
Grand jurors in the district indicted Biden in December on charges that he failed to pay more than $1.2 million in income tax.