A federal judge has entered a default judgment in favor of Hunter Biden in his defamation lawsuit against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne. The judge awarded Hunter Biden $1.7 million in punitive damages along with nominal damages.
Background of the Lawsuit
Hunter Biden filed the lawsuit in November 2023 after Byrne publicly accused him of attempting to broker a corrupt deal with the Iranian government. Byrne claimed Hunter Biden approached Iranian officials in late 2021 and offered to persuade then-President Joe Biden to unfreeze approximately $8 billion in Iranian assets in exchange for an $800 million payment into a secret account.
Hunter Biden alleged the accusations were entirely fabricated and knowingly false. The complaint also accused Byrne of republishing those allegations on social media following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel, implying Hunter Biden’s purported actions had contributed to the outbreak of violence.
Default Judgment
The case never reached a jury due to Byrne’s repeated failure to comply with court orders. The judge found Byrne had demonstrated a deliberate effort to delay and obstruct the litigation, making it impossible for the case to proceed toward trial.
The court previously found evidence supporting actual malice, concluding that Byrne’s claims rested largely on unverified hearsay and that he failed to conduct any meaningful independent investigation before publicly repeating the allegations.
Original reporting: FITSNews — read the source article.
