(USNewsMag.com) – Hunter Biden, the son of the current U.S. President, has filed a lawsuit against former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne over allegedly slanderous remarks. The lawsuit accuses Byrne of falsely asserting that Biden had sought a bribe from Iran, a claim that Biden vehemently denies. The legal action against Byrne follows a similar suit filed by Biden against Rudy Giuliani and the Internal Revenue Service in September.
The recent lawsuit, filed in a federal court in the Central District of California, alleges that Byrne made false statements back in June, claiming that Biden had proposed helping Iran “unfreeze” $8 billion of its assets in exchange for an $800 million bribe. It further alleges that Byrne spread these false accusations to his sizable social media following of roughly 290,000 users on a platform previously known as Twitter.
The lawsuit emphatically denies these claims, calling them “completely baseless”. It argues that falsely accusing Hunter Biden of such illegal conduct is reckless, unfounded, but also scandalous and vile, constituting a clear defamation case.
The legal action also accuses Byrne of escalating his false claims rather than retracting them, despite being advised to do so because of the severe damage they are causing Biden. The lawsuit seeks general and punitive damages and demands that Byrne pay for Biden’s legal expenses and attorney’s fees.
Byrne, who has yet to respond to the litigation, reacted to Biden’s legal actions on social media, commenting, “Hunter’s lawyer must be out of his mind.”
In response to the previous lawsuit filed in September, Giuliani’s attorney stated, “Hunter Biden has previously denied owning the laptop. Given the controversial material and potential evidence of crimes on it, it’s no surprise he’s falsely accusing Mayor Giuliani of tampering with his laptop hard drive.”
Byrne, who resigned from Overstock in 2019 after making cryptic comments about a “Deep State” that alarmed shareholders and led to a dramatic drop in the company’s stock, is no stranger to controversy. He confessed to the New York Times about having an affair with Maria Butina, a convicted Russian agent.
Recently, Byrne, a former Marshall scholar with a doctorate in philosophy from Stanford University, has focused on his “Deep Capture” website, where he posts right-leaning articles with titles such as “What’s Wrong with Woke” and pieces on alleged election fraud.
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