A federal judge on Friday awarded Hunter Biden $1.7 million in punitive damages in a defamation lawsuit he filed against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.
Biden sued Byrne in 2023, accusing him of lying in an interview that Biden had sought a bribe from Iran’s government in the fall of 2021 and had offered, in exchange for an $800 million bribe, to have his father "unfreeze" $8 billion in Iranian assets and ensure the U.S. would "go easy" on Iran during "nuclear talks," the complaint said.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson wrote that Byrne disputed that he made the statements with "actual malice" and told the court he believed the statements were true because an Iranian government official had told him about the alleged scheme, but the judge found Byrne did not allege the official had direct contact with Biden and provided no documentary evidence supporting the claims.
The judge wrote that the court found "ample evidence" supporting a finding that Byrne "knew the story to be false, and much of the narrative describing the covert meeting with an Iranian government official was fabricated."
The case had been scheduled for a jury trial in October, but Wilson wrote that Byrne "failed to appear" for the proceeding and fired his lead trial attorney, delaying the proceedings; after the failure to appear, Wilson found Byrne in default as a sanction for what the judge described as "repeated, intentional disobedience of court orders and unceasing efforts to delay proceedings."
Wilson awarded Biden $1 in nominal damages and ordered Byrne to pay about $35,000 in court sanctions.
Biden attorney Bryan Sullivan said Byrne had effectively accused his client of "treason" and that a judge had "found that every one of those claims was fabricated." Sullivan added, "The judgment is $1.7m in punitive damages, and it is the floor, not the ceiling, of what Mr Byrne owes for his conduct. If Mr Byrne chooses to repeat any of it, we will be back in court." Attorneys listed as representing Byrne did not immediately respond to comment.
The ruling came as Biden has been building an online following through social media posts on politics, mental health and addiction recovery and announced he will publish a series of essays on the Substack platform; it also came after his father issued him a pardon for convictions on federal gun and tax charges.