Hunter Biden sues former Overstock chief, alleging defamation

Hunter Biden is suing Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of online retailer Overstock, for defamation, alleging Byrne, a fierce former President Trump ally, made false statements that claimed Biden sought a bribe from Iran.

The suit, filed Wednesday in the Central District of California, accuses Byrne of publishing false statements last June that Biden had reached out to the Iranian government in the fall of 2021 and offered to have his father, President Biden, “unfreeze” $8 billion in Iranian funds in exchange for $800 million being funneled into an account.

Byrne allegedly stated that the younger Biden told the Iranian government that, “If you do this deal with us, it will lubricate other negotiations which have recently started between us,” according to the suit.

The former Overstock CEO then reposted these statements on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Oct. 8, about a day after the militant group Hamas launched a bloody incursion into Israel that left more than 1,400 people dead, the lawsuit claims.

Hunter Biden’s attorneys argued Byrne’s Oct. 8 posts implied the president’s son’s “allegedly criminal and corrupt actions had contributed to the terrorist attacks by Hamas,” and that Biden was a “substantial factor” in the recent violence and war in the Middle East.

“These defamatory statements by Byrne are not merely false and not merely malicious — they are completely outrageous,” Hunter Biden’s lawyers wrote. “Byrne knows his statements are baseless and yet published and republished them anyway, and he continues to propagate his lies to anyone who will listen, including his hundreds of thousands of social media followers.”

Byrne reacted to the suit on social media, writing on X, “Hunter’s lawsuit against me (my interpretation): ‘Now that I’ve got Daddy’s DOJ under control… Let’s silence Byrne with a lawsuit + gag order.’ Good luck with that. PS Hunter, my 1st witness is a 35 year federal agent who will attest I told the truth and FBI verified it.”

Byrne was also sued by Dominion voting systems in 2021 over allegations that he made false claims about the 2020 election when he stated the company’s machines were manipulated to swing votes in President Biden’s favor and against former President Trump.

The lawsuit on Wednesday came on the same day Hunter Biden and his uncle James Biden were subpoenaed by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee as part of the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into the president.

The Oversight Committee, along with the House Judiciary Committee, have spent the past several months probing into Hunter Biden’s time on the board of a Ukrainian energy company while his father was vice president. Lawmakers are trying to determine if President Biden or members of his family directly financially benefited from Hunter’s foreign business dealings.

The suit against Byrne marks the latest in a continuation of suits from Hunter Biden, most of which have surrounded the controversy over a laptop hard drive that supposedly belonged to him, which he allegedly left at a Delaware computer repair shop. 

The contents of the laptop came into focus after a New York Post story was published in October 2020 discussing emails that detailed alleged meetings between President Biden, who was vice president at the time, the president’s son and Ukrainian business executives.

Last September, Hunter sued Rudy Giuliani for the “total annihilation” of his digital privacy and data in connection to the former mayor’s involvement in circulating information he claimed was from Biden’s laptop.

Just weeks before that suit, Hunter sued former Trump administration aide Garrett Ziegler over his alleged role in distributing embarrassing private emails and photos from a laptop Ziegler claimed belonged to the president’s son. 

In March, Hunter Biden sued the computer repair shop owner who he claims distributed the contents of a laptop he left at his Delaware shop.