by Hunter Biden’s lawyer sent Donald Trump’s legal team a cease and desist letter on Thursday, accusing the former president of repeatedly smearing the president’s son Joe Biden on social media.
“I am sending you this letter to urge your client, former President Donald Trump, to cease and desist from making public statements about my client that are defamatory and could incite Trump supporters to take action against Biden and which could result in injury to himself or his family,» Abbe Lowell, Biden’s attorney, wrote in the letter.
The letter was first reported by ABC News. An attorney for Trump did not immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment. Lowell’s office declined to comment.
The letter, addressed to four of Trump’s lawyers, accuses the former president of invoking Biden’s name on social media to «harass and incite his supporters almost daily since Trump himself was impeached.»
Lowell said Trump’s posts amount to «thinly veiled calls to action for his easily activated supporters.»
cited a july mail on Trump’s Truth Social platform in which the former president wrote that David Weiss, the prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden, «never had the courage» to prosecute Biden, saying he handed out «a traffic ticket instead of a sentence of death”.
«We have seen that what could pass as such a phrase when uttered by rational people is heard by too many in this country as a terrible injustice for which they must take physical and violent action,» he wrote, citing high-profile occurrences by politicians. violence, including the attack on the husband of former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Paul Pelosi, in October.
That attack, along with other high-profile cases of political violence, typify the real-world implications of Trump’s rhetoric, Lowell argued.
“We are just one social media message away from yet another incident, and you need to make it clear to Mr. Trump, if he hasn’t already done so, that Mr. Trump’s words have caused harm in the past and threaten to do so again if not stopped. «, wrote.
In June, Weiss, the Trump-appointed federal prosecutor for Delaware, announced a plea deal with Hunter Biden, who is expected to plead guilty to two federal misdemeanors for failing to pay his taxes. Biden also faces a separate felony charge of gun possession that will likely be dismissed if he meets certain conditions, according to court documents filed last month.
Under a provision of the agreement, the US attorney has agreed to recommend parole for Biden for his tax violations, two sources familiar with the matter previously told NBC News. Legal experts told NBC News the tax and gun charges are unlikely to result in jail time for President Biden’s son.
Trump and a group of his Republican allies have repeatedly tried to juxtapose Biden’s case with the former president’s legal hurdles. They claim that a plea deal that results in misdemeanors and no jail time smacks of preferential treatment for a powerful family.
Legal experts say the cases are fundamentally different. Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor and NBC News legal analyst, told MSNBC last month that the deal Hunter Biden struck was a decent outcome for the president’s son, but not the «lovely deal» that Trump and his allies have made. be.
Lowell, in his letter, said he is «a bit surprised to have to send this letter because it appears that Mr. Trump is currently facing enough legal trouble.»
“I am writing to demand that this stop,” he wrote. «I hope you will speak to Mr. Trump privately and explain how incitement from him can further hurt people and cause him even more legal trouble.»
sarah fitzpatrick, tom winter, dareh gregorian, Peter Nicholas and Katherine Doyle contributed.
