Judicial Watch Sues Justice Dept for FBI Records on Hunter Biden’s Infamous Laptop

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for all FBI investigative records concerning Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, which contained extensive evidence of Biden family business dealings (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-04240)).

 The lawsuit filed in the U.S. Distrcit Court for the District of Columbia after the FBI failed to respond to a January 29, 2025, FOIA request for:

 All FBI investigative reports, witness interview summaries, memoranda, and other records related to the investigation of Hunter Biden’s laptop.

 All emails, text messages, Lync messages and other electronic communications records related to the Hunter Biden laptop.

IRS whistleblowers confirmed that the FBI became aware of Hunter Biden’s laptop as early as October 2019 and verified its authenticity in November 2019. The FBI took possession of it in December 2019.

In October 2020, through information obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop, the New York Post began publishing reports about the Biden family’s business arrangements.

In an August 2022 letter, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) highlighted whistleblower concerns about the handling of the FBI’s investigation, noting that the Bureau appeared to take no visible action for months despite possessing the verified laptop well before the 2020 presidential election.

“The Justice Department’s refusal to release these basic investigative records raises serious questions about transparency and potential interference in one of the most consequential political stories in recent history,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “We will fight in court to get the public the answers it is entitled to under the law.”

Judicial Watch has filed numerous FOIA lawsuits seeking transparency on the Hunter Biden investigations and related matters.

In July 2025, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department for all records from the Offices of Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, and Associate Attorney General regarding Joe Biden’s controversial pardon of Hunter Biden (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:25-cv-02143)).

A hearing was held in July 2025 in the FOIA lawsuit against the National Archives for Biden family records and communications regarding travel and finance transactions, as well as communications between the Bidens and several known business associates (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. National Archives (No. 1:23-cv-01432).

In February 2025, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department for records and communications regarding the Internal Revenue Service’s investigation of Hunter Biden (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No.1:24-cv-03387)).

In June 2024, Judicial Watch received records from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) showing Mike Morell, former acting CIA director under President Obama, requesting CIA permission to publish a letter by former intelligence community leaders stating that they believed the laptop emails exposing Hunter Biden’s connections to Ukraine were Russian disinformation. Morrell’s request for prepublication review was approved in just six hours by the CIA (Judicial Watch v. Central Intelligence Agency (No. 1:23-cv-01844)).

In January 2024, Judicial Watch filed lawsuit against the Justice Department for records of communications between the FBI and social media sites regarding foreign influence in elections, as well as Big Tech censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story (Judicial Watch Inc. v U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:23-cv-00079)).

In October 2022, Judicial Watch sued DOJ for all records in the possession of FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten regarding an August 6, 2020, briefing provided to members of the U.S. Senate. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) raised concerns that the briefing was intended to undermine the senators’ investigation of Hunter Biden (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:22-cv-02821)).

Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department on April 20, 2022, for messages sent through the SMART (State Messaging and Archive Retrieval Toolkit) system that mention Hunter Biden (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:22-cv-01066)).

In December 2020, State Department records obtained through a Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit showed that former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch had specifically warned in 2017 about corruption allegations against Burisma Holdings. Previously in this case, State Department records included a briefing checklist of a February 22, 2019, meeting in Kyiv between then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and Sally Painter, co-founder and chief operating officer of Blue Star Strategies, a Democratic lobbying firm which was hired by Burisma Holdings to combat corruption allegations. At the time of the meeting, Hunter Biden was serving on the board of directors for Burisma Holdings (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:20-cv-00229)).

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