Byrne found in default after failing to appear at trial
Hunter Biden sued Patrick Byrne in 2023, accusing the former Overstock.com CEO of defaming him in an interview published in June of that year and again on Oct. 8, 2023. Byrne — a Donald Trump ally who denied the results of the 2020 election and funded efforts to overturn them — claimed that Biden had sought an $800 million bribe from Iran’s government in the fall of 2021, according to the lawsuit.
Biden alleged in the complaint that Byrne “made, published, and repeated false and defamatory statements knowing full well that the statements are false, for the purpose of subjecting plaintiff to harassment, intimidation, and harm.”
Byrne’s claim asserted that Biden had offered to go to his father, who was president at the time, to unfreeze $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets and ensure that the U.S. would “go easy” on Iran during nuclear talks, the lawsuit said.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson, appointed to the federal bench during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, wrote in Friday’s order that Byrne had disputed that he made the statements with “actual malice.” Byrne told the court he believed the statements were true because an Iranian government official had told him about the alleged bribery scheme, according to the order.
But Wilson wrote that Byrne did not allege the Iranian official had claimed direct contact with Biden, did not provide any evidence supporting his claims, and failed to “provide to this court, throughout the course of litigation, any documentary evidence that could allow a reasonable person to believe the story to be true.”
Wilson added 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” and fired his lead trial attorney, delaying proceedings “at the expense” of Biden and the court. After Byrne’s failure to appear, Wilson found him 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 along with $1.7 million in punitive damages, and ordered Byrne to pay about $35,000 in court sanctions.
In a statement to The Guardian on Saturday, an attorney for Biden, Bryan Sullivan, said Byrne had effectively accused his client of “treason” and now a judge had “found that every one of those claims was fabricated.”
“The judgment is $1.7m in punitive damages, and it is the floor, not the ceiling, of what Mr Byrne owes for his conduct,” Sullivan added. “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 The Guardian’s request for comment.
The ruling came as Hunter Biden has been building an online following through social media posts covering topics such as politics, mental health and addiction recovery. He also announced that he will publish a series of essays on the Substack platform. The defamation judgment follows his father’s decision, in the waning days of his presidency, to issue Hunter Biden a pardon for convictions on federal gun and tax charges.