Computer repairman at center of Hunter Biden scandal closes his store

Neighbour said John Paul Mac Isaac had left town

The computer repairman who claimed he provided a hard drive containing information from Hunter Biden’s laptop to Rudy Giuliani has closed up shop.

The small repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware, made headlines after The New York Post published a controversial and unverified story on Mr Biden’s Ukraine links citing emails taken from a laptop hard drive provided by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.

Since then John Paul Mac Isaac has since closed down his computer repair business, leaving a closed sign in the shop’s window,  according to a report by USA Today.

Mr Mac Isaac’s Annapolis-based attorney, Brian Della Rocca, told the outlet that Mr Mac Isaac closed the shop after receiving death threats. He declined to disclose where his client might have gone, or even if he had left town.

Mr Giuliani purportedly received the hard drive from the Delaware store owner, who claimed Mr Biden left the computer at this shop for repairs in April 2019 and never returned to collect it. The owner could not definitively identify the customer who left the laptop as Mr Biden, reports said.

The Post’s story caused significant controversy upon its publication, as other outlets were unable to independently verify or authenticate the emails.

The former mayor used the purported data to make a host of damning allegations against the 50-year-old while simultaneously launching a campaign against Joe Biden in the last days of the run-up to the 2020 election.

Joe Biden said the reports stemming from the alleged laptop were a  “desperate campaign to smear me and my family” .

Mr Mac Isaac’s attorney told USA Today that he did not expect his client to become entangled in a potential lawsuit or criminal investigation following allegations related to the laptop but reportedly said his office had recently spoken to Wilmington FBI agents and with Delaware's Assistant United States Attorney Leslie Wolf.

"I've been in touch with federal law enforcement, yes," Mr Della Rocca said, but declined to discuss the nature of the conversations.

In news media interviews the owner previously said he had contacted the FBI through an intermediary and provided agents with a copy of the hard drive’s contents.

Neither the FBI nor the US Attorney's Office in Delaware would comment when contacted by USA Today.