Computer repairman who received Hunter Biden's laptop sues CNN, Politico, Daily Beast and Schiff

The Delaware repairman who says he was the first to give the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop to the FBI has filed a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against several news outlets and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) alleging they falsely accused him of disseminating Russian disinformation.

The suit was filed Tuesday in a circuit court in Montgomery County, Md., by plaintiff John Paul Mac Isaac, the former owner of the electronic repair shop where the laptop was purportedly dropped off for repairs.

"After fighting to reveal the truth, all I want now is for the rest of the country to know that there was a collective and orchestrated effort by social and mainstream media to block a real story with real consequences for the nation," he told The New York Post, which first reported about the laptop and its hard drive that includes information about Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings, in part while his father, President Joe Biden, was vice president.

Mac Issac says he's fighting back after being targeted for harassment by Big Tech, the mainstream media and various supporters of the Biden family for about two years. 

The media outlets named in the suit are CNN, Politico and The Daily Beast. 

The 45-year-old, who lost his business in the wake of the scandal, became the legal owner of the laptop after Hunter Biden allegedly dropped it off at his store in April 2019 and never returned for it.

Mac Isaac says he gave a copy of the laptop's hard drive to the FBI in December 2019 and eight months later informed then-President Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani of its existence.

Giuliani, in turn, provided the Post with a copy of the drive. 

Weeks prior to the 2020 presidential election, when the Post ran the story about the laptop and was subsequently kicked off Twitter and stifled on Facebook, 51 former intelligence officials said they believed the laptop was Russian disinformation.

The letter, signed by the officials, was initially published in Politico.

"After fighting to reveal the truth, all I want now is for the rest of the country to know that there was a collective and orchestrated effort by social and mainstream media to block a real story with real consequences for the nation," said Mac Issac, who claims he was forced to close his shop after people started vandalizing it. 

"The fight to get to the bottom of who told everyone this was Russian disinformation is far more important for the nation than me clearing my name."

The suit alleges Schiff, who lives in Maryland's Montgomery County, defamed him in an interview on CNN several days after the Post began publishing information about Hunter's laptop. Schiff told CNN host Wolf Blitzer that he believed that the Kremlin was behind the laptop story. 

"Well, we know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin. That’s been clear for well over a year now that they’ve been pushing this false narrative about the vice president and his son," the suit says Schiff told Blitzer.