California lawsuit over impersonation linked to Hunter Biden laptop survives appeal

**Correction **

The following article should have clarified that while the appellate court held that, for anti-SLAPP purposes, Plaintiff P. Kevin Morris presented enough to allow a trial of fact to infer that Defendant Garrett Ziegler authored the text messages that purported to be from a Democratic fundraiser, the court did not make a judicial finding that Mr. Ziegler in fact authored the messages. As noted in the article, Mr. Ziegler has denied that he was the author of the messages. In addition, the article should have clarified that Mr. Morris’ false light claim was based on Mr. Ziegler’s alleged out-of-context publication of Mr. Morris’ text messages.

(CN) — A lawsuit filed by an attorney for Hunter Biden claiming a former Trump White House aide harassed and doxed him will return to a lower court after a Thursday ruling by a California appeals panel.

P. Kevin Morris sued Garrett Ziegler and Marco Polo, a nonprofit that publishes information about the Biden family, in 2023 over claims Ziegler posed as a Democratic fundraiser and elicited information about Biden’s laptop. Ziegler then revealed himself, distributed Morris’ contact details to social media followers and later published a 644-page report about the laptop.

Saying he received constant harassment, Morris made five claims in his suit: harassment for the doxing; civil harassment; criminal impersonation; false light; and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The defendants responded with an anti-SLAPP motion — Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, meant to protect defendants from litigation that could censor or silence their free speech rights.

A Los Angeles County judge in late 2023 ruled that four out of five of Morris’ claims could proceed, finding that the doxing claim couldn’t go forward. Both parties appealed, leading to Thursday’s unanimous appeals panel decision.

“We affirm the trial court’s order in all respects but one,” Associate Justice Judith Ashmann-Gerst said for the panel. “The court allowed Morris’ civil harassment claim to go forward, but we find that claim lacks the minimal merit required to survive an anti-SLAPP motion.”

The case will now return to the lower court, with that judge removing the civil harassment claim from the complaint.

Detailing the panel’s decision, the Gray Davis appointee said the lower court should have struck both the doxing and civil harassment claim. The doxing claim has no private right of action, and Morris can’t use it in his suit.

The civil harassment claim failed for similar reasons, Ashmann-Gerst said.

The law allows a victim of harassment to get a temporary restraining order, followed by another order after a hearing that prohibits the harassment. It doesn’t mean there’s a remedy through a civil claim for harassment, the panel ruled.

However, the remaining three claims can continue to proceed through the courts.

Concerning criminal impersonation, Morris offered text messages supporting his argument that Ziegler contacted him while pretending to be someone else and used that guise to get private information. Ziegler then used an image affiliated with Marco Polo to reveal himself, Ashmann-Gerst found.

“And Marco Polo also benefitted from Ziegler’s impersonation, as it used the texts Ziegler received in its widely circulated report on the Biden laptop,” she added.

Ziegler has said he wasn’t the person impersonating the Democratic fundraiser. Instead, it was an independent “whistleblower.”

Pivoting to the false light claim, Ashmann-Gerst said Morris must show that Ziegler’s statements asserted facts, created a false impression of him, were highly offensive or defamatory and were made with malice.

Morris claims the defendants published text messages that gave the false impression he harassed Ziegler and Marco Polo.

“The bombastic text messages are highly offensive, as is the implication that Morris improperly wielded his money and influence to silence political opponents,” the justice said.

The defendants pushed back on the false light and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims by arguing Morris didn’t show actual malice. The panel disagreed.

Neither party could be reached for comment as of publication time.

The appeals panel was rounded out by Administrative Presiding Justice Elwood Lui, a Jerry Brown appointee, and Associate Justice Victoria Chavez, appointed by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Morris’ suit is similar to one filed by Biden in 2023 against Ziegler in federal court. In that complaint, Biden argued that Ziegler accessed and tampered with data gained from a hacked iPhone backup.

Biden in March asked for the suit’s dismissal, saying he no longer had the money to litigate the case.