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FIRST ON FOX: The California Supreme Court has ordered Kevin Morris, a lawyer and close associate of Hunter Biden, to pay former Trump aide Garrett Ziegler and Marco Polo, the nonprofit research team he founded, to pay legal fees.
The decision ends a long-running dispute over whether Ziegler impersonated a Democratic strategist to leak sensitive information to Morris about Hunter Biden’s laptop during a 2022 phone call.
For Jennifer Holliday, Ziegler’s attorney, the sentence doesn’t even begin to cap three years of legal battles.
“Ithat’s not how I thought it would play out, and I don’t think that’s how the Constitution thinks something like this would play out — that’s why we petitioned the United States Supreme Court to review it,” Holliday told Fox News Digital.
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Entertainment lawyer Kevin Morris comes to J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on Jun. 06, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware during the Hunter Biden murder trial. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“I really hope that they will look closely at what is happening here because this is not a situation that should have happened,” he added.
Holliday is asking the Supreme Court to review California’s anti-SLAPP law, saying the state’s free speech protections actually make the case worse by stretching what he believes is a weak prosecution.
A person familiar with the Morris case called the conclusion formal and downplayed the Supreme Court filing as unlikely to get a review, noting that Ziegler’s representation had asked for up to $300,000 to settle the case.
Morris and Ziegler’s legal dispute began when Morris picked up the phone and spoke to what he thought was a Democratic operative about a laptop back in 2022. But when, after a phone call, he received a picture of an octopus, the phrase “NOTHING IS FOR THE PROVINCE,” and the words “Marco Polo,” Morris realized his mistake.
Morris concluded that the caller must have been Ziegler, the Republican strategist who worked to compile the contents of the laptop and rediscovered Marco Polo.
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Morris accused Ziegler of harassment, criminal harassment, criminal impersonation, false lighting and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The case soured for Morris when he failed to find a connection between his phone and Ziegler.
Wearing a suit in the rearview mirror, Holliday was surprised that Morris had kept his case for three years without providing evidence that the phone was connected to Ziegler.
“No phone number was ever presented in court, in the Court of Appeals, to me, if I found it, anywhere,” Holliday said.
When Holliday was asked who made the call, he said he was not comfortable discussing the matter.
When asked about the case, Ziegler said that Morris was working for Hunter Biden who deliberately brought him a weak case.
“Morris is responsible for all the bull—- that Hunter has been pulling out for the past few years,” Ziegler said, referring to the support Morris reportedly gave to the younger Biden during his legal services.
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Garrett Ziegler, author of the Report on Biden’s Laptop, was photographed outside the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Del., on Sept. 7, 2023. (Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post)
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Ziegler’s representation upheld a request for a debtor’s assessment against Morris if he did not pay the $50,000 court-ordered amount within 30 days.
