Hunter Biden says ‘rule of law prevailed’ in defamation lawsuit netting him $1.7m

Hunter Biden says he is “grateful that the rule of law prevailed” in a defamation lawsuit that recently netted him a judgment of $1.7m in punitive damages from former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.

Biden made that comment in a social media post that served as his first comments about the judgment, which a federal judge in California handed down on Friday.

The post by Joe Biden’s son cited a portion of the ruling which said Byrne “is not credible, fabricates awesome and farfetched narratives to garner attention in the media, and fabricated the defamatory story at issue in this case to damage the plaintiff’s reputation”.

US district judge Stephen Wilson’s “order … speaks for itself,” Biden wrote, along with a hyperlink to the decision.

Biden sued Byrne in 2023, maintaining that Byrne lied in an interview that Biden had solicited a bribe from Iran’s government in 2021.

Biden’s father was the US president at the time. Byrne for his part is a Donald Trump ally who funded efforts to overturn the president’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Hunter Biden’s lawsuit recounted how Byrne in an interview lied that Hunter Biden – in exchange for an $800m bribe – had offered Iran to go to his father, have him “unfreeze” $8bn in frozen Iranian assets and ensure that the US would “go easy” on Iran during “nuclear talks” between the two countries.

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,” Biden’s lawsuit said.

In his order on Friday, Wilson wrote that Byrne had previously disputed he ever made those statements with “actual malice”, which was the legal standard Biden had to meet to win his case. And, Wilson wrote, Byrne argued that he believed the statements to be true because he purported an Iranian government official had told him about the alleged bribery scheme.

But Wilson – who was appointed to the federal judiciary during Ronald Reagan’s presidency – wrote that Byrne never alleged that the Iranian official had indicated having any direct contact with Biden. Byrne also failed to provide any evidence supporting his claims and did not “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”.

The case had been scheduled for a jury trial in October. But Wilson wrote that Byrne “failed to appear” for the trial and fired his lead attorney, causing a delay in the case “at the expense” of Biden and the court.

Wilson ultimately sanctioned Byrne by finding him to be in default. And the judge on Friday awarded Biden $1 in nominal damages and $1.7m in punitive damages – while also assessing $35,000 in court sanctions against Byrne.

Some legal commentators have noted that Byrne in effect lost on procedural grounds rather than substantive ones because jurors never heard the case.

Regardless, a statement from one of Biden’s attorneys, Bryan Sullivan, on Saturday said he and his client would “be back in court” with Byrne if the defendant chose to repeat any of the falsehoods that prompted the lawsuit.

Biden’s judgment on Friday came after his father pardoned him for convictions on federal gun and tax charges. That happened as Joe Biden’s White House term ended and Trump prepared to begin his second presidency toward the beginning of 2025.

Days before his damages award, Biden appeared on the Friends Keep Secrets podcast and revisited how his protective Secret Service detail was canceled in March 2025 after Laura Loomer – an influencer among proponents of Trump’s Make America great again (Maga) movement – shared a picture online of him with his family in South Africa.

Biden said he, his wife and his son were in the South African city of Cape Town at the time of the picture because the Palisades wildfire in Los Angeles prevented them from going “back” to their Malibu home.

Besides the podcast appearance, Biden has recently been publishing on the Substack platform and writing well-shared social media posts covering topics such as politics, mental health and addiction recovery.