The former Trump White House aide who’s been instrumental in disseminating the contents of the first son’s now notorious laptop is demanding the recusal of the federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s lawsuit against him. 

Garrett Ziegler, who maintained a searchable online database of the laptop’s contents, is pointing out that Judge Hernan Vera donated to the Biden campaign in 2020 and was later nominated to the bench by the president. 

“Recusal is warranted because Judge Vera made donations to Joseph Biden’s campaign for president,” his motion says, and “because Judge Vera was appointed to the Central District Court by President Joseph Biden just three months before this lawsuit was filed by President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and one day after Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced a presidential impeachment inquiry had commenced in Congress.”

Mr. Biden is suing Mr. Ziegler for damages on the grounds that Mr. Ziegler violated California and federal computer privacy laws by gaining access and disseminating the contents of his laptop. Mr. Ziegler is believed to have obtained the laptop from one of President Trump’s attorneys, Rudy Giuliani, who in turn received it in 2020 from a computer repair shop proprietor, John Paul Mac Isaac. Mr. Biden gave his laptop to Mr. Mac Isaac in 2019 and never returned for it. 

Mr. Ziegler says that Mr. Biden’s lawsuit — which was filed in September — could have a material impact on the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Biden in Congress. Much of the information about Mr. Biden’s foreign business dealings, including messages to his father and business partners, were first made public when Mr. Ziegler published the contents of the laptop in their entirety. 

The laptop also included ample photographic and video evidence of Mr. Biden’s drug use, evidence that’s being used against him by federal prosecutors who’ve charged him with multiple felonies for lying about his drug use to purchase a gun in 2018. Many of the photos and videos are sexually explicit, showing Mr. Biden using drugs and engaging in obscene acts with women who appear to be sex workers.

“The district court rulings in this case may affect the impeachment inquiry along with the future presidency of Joseph Biden, toward which Judge Vera made a financial investment and for which Judge Vera has an obvious interest and affinity,” Mr. Ziegler’s motion for recusal states.

In his lawsuit, Mr. Biden criticized Mr. Ziegler, who worked for a Trump aide, Peter Navarro, during his time at the White House.  

“Garrett Ziegler is a zealot who has waged a sustained, unhinged and obsessed campaign against Plaintiff and the entire Biden family for more than two years,” Mr. Biden’s lawsuit states. “While Defendant Ziegler is entitled to his extremist and counterfactual opinions, he has no right to engage in illegal activities to advance his right-wing agenda.”

In June, Mr. Ziegler posted nearly 10,000 photographs from Mr. Biden’s laptop online. He says the website took “months” to complete because he had to cover up the most explicit parts of the photos. “The no. 1 thing we’re about … is truth and transparency,” he told Fox News. “If the American people want to know what their first family is like, they’re going to get it. And we’re not going to be taking out photos that paint the Bidens in a good light.”

Mr. Ziegler previously confirmed to the Sun that he had played a role in facilitating a now-notorious December 2020 Oval Office meeting between Messrs. Trump and Giuliani, a private attorney, Sidney Powell, and a former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, among others, during which the idea of appointing Powell as a special counsel investigating election fraud was discussed.

Mr. Ziegler said he “sent a hyperlink [where] they could fill out a form and submit to the Secret Service so they could be admitted on to the property.” This enabled Powell to slip into the White House under the nose of Mr. Trump’s senior White House staff, who were trying to keep her away from the president. Mr. Ziegler did not attend the meeting. 

Mr. Biden has also filed a lawsuit, for invasion of privacy, against the laptop repair shop owner who gave the laptop to Mr. Giuliani. Mr. Mac Isaac says he legally took possession of the laptop after Mr. Biden failed to pick it up. 

“Mac Isaac’s knowing and intentional distribution of Mr. Biden’s personal and sensitive data was not carried out for any reasonable or legitimate purposes, but rather to try and expose Mr. Biden’s data to those that he knew or should have known would intend to create embarrassment and harm for Mr. Biden,” Mr. Biden’s lawsuit states.