You don't get to rummage through someone's computer just because it's in your possession. That's not how the law or property works in the US. The shop owner made an illegal copy of Hunter's hard drive and then went forward and shared it with a bunch of people.
It seems like you do, in certain situations, this being one of them. Otherwise someone would have been prosecuted for making an illegal copy, as you say. Further, such evidence would be considered "illegal search and seizure" and inadmissible in court as evidence against Hunter Biden. But that isn't happening, the laptop information is/was absolutely used as evidence.
He tried to get Hunter to pay for the repairs several times, and then took possession of the laptop as payment for services after a year or more. That is legal in the US.
Given how public this story was, if what he did was illegal, local DA would have prosecuted him.
Hunter Biden abandoned the laptop. The Intel agencies and the corp media tried to cover it up.
