A judge has granted Hunter Biden's request to drop his laptop hacking case against former White House aide Garrett Ziegler but blocked him from resuming the case in the future.
Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, claimed in his request filed in California that he's "millions of dollars in debt" because his artwork and memoir aren't selling, and he lost a home he was renting in the Los Angeles wildfires.
Federal Judge Hernán Vera, in ruling in his favor, still said Biden would have an unfair advantage if he refiled his case, as Ziegler's attorneys had already submitted papers, which included their main defense in the case, reported The New York Post Friday.
The papers would have given Biden a "road map" to Ziegler's "most important legal arguments" along with prejudicial advantage, given the former president's son had "yet to file an opposition."
Further, if Biden returned with the case, he would have extra time to prepare for a deposition with information from Ziegler's latest briefing, said Vera.
Ziegler, who had been an aide to trade adviser Peter Navarro, tried to fight back against dropping the case, so he could go after Biden for legal fees.
Biden was to have been deposed on March 10 by Ziegler, who he said hacked his laptop and shared the infamous contents on the conservative nonprofit site Marco Polo.
In the lawsuit, Biden accused Ziegler and others of breaking data and computer fraud laws by gaining access to "tens of thousands of emails, thousands of photos, and dozens of videos and recordings" from the laptop.
Ziegler's attorneys have speculated that Biden was exaggerating his financial woes and that he wanted to drop the case since he was reportedly planning to take a three-month trip to South Africa, where his wife, Melissa Cohen, is from.
Lawyers for Biden and Ziegler didn't immediately return requests for comment Friday morning.