Hunter Biden wins $1.7 million in punitive damages against Patrick Byrne

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A federal judge in California Friday awarded Hunter Biden $1.7 million in punitive damages in his defamation dispute against former Overstock.com CEO and 2020 election denier Patrick Byrne.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson had already indicated at a hearing in January that Byrne faced punitive damages after failing to defend himself against the claims by former President Joe Biden’s son. Byrne had claimed Biden had sought an $800 million bribe from Iran sometime in 2021.

“Here, the evidence is clear and convincing that defendant has engaged in intentional misrepresentation with conscious disregard towards plaintiff’s rights,” Wilson said. “Defendant’s defamation went far beyond mere negligence. In fact, defendant has admitted that after the offending article was published, defendant repeatedly reposted the article across social media platforms and encouraged his followers on those platforms to promote it further.”

The judge, a Ronald Reagan appointee, also cited Byrne’s persistent delaying tactics during the litigation, including by derailing a trial scheduled last July in downtown Los Angeles by firing his legal team on the first day of trial and failing to show up in person as his then-attorney had promised the judge that he would.

“Defendant has sustained a campaign of dilatory tactics that have indefinitely extended this years-long litigation, while denying plaintiff his day in court,” Wilson wrote. “This was not a product of excusable neglect but rather of coordinated strategy.”

The judge awarded Biden the $1 in nominal damages he had sought and ordered Byrne to pay the $34,969.20 in court-ordered sanctions he already owes within 14 days. The sanctions will increase by $1,000 for each day Byrne fails to pay them after the 14-day period.

“This is a complete vindication for Hunter Biden against the false statements made about him by Patrick Byrne,” said Bryan Sullivan, an attorney with Early Sullivan Wright Gizer and McRae LLP, who has been representing Biden in the case. “As found by the court, Byrne had no basis to say that Hunter had any involvement with Iran whatsoever.”

The last attorney who unsuccessfully sought to appear in the case on Byrne’s behalf did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Byrne, 63, resigned as Overstock.com’s CEO in 2019 after a reported relationship with convicted Russian spy Maria Butina. He later became involved in efforts to challenge the legitimacy of President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.

Byrne, who is no stranger to conspiracy theories, has repeatedly claimed that the younger Biden tried to get an $800 million bribe from Iran in exchange for his father’s administration releasing $8 billion in Iranian funds that are frozen in South Korea and for the U.S. to “go easy” in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.

“These defamatory statements by Byrne are not merely false and not merely malicious — they are completely outrageous,” Biden said in his complaint. “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.”

Last July, when the jury trial was about to start, Byrne dodged default over his failure to appear in person at court in downtown LA. Instead, Byrne fired his lawyers and had a new defense team show up for the first time.

Wilson refused to allow Byrne’s new set of lawyers to join the case, noting the lead attorney, Michigan-based Stephanie Lambert, had been disqualified last year for violating federal court orders in a Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit against Byrne.

The judge, while calling Byrne’s tactics a “three-ring circus,” declined to order him in default at the time and rescheduled trial for October 2025. He also gave Biden’s team another chance to subpoena Byrne about his finances, which they had intended to do at trial in reliance on assurances by Byrne’s former lawyers that he would testify in person.

Because public policy requires trials be decided on the merits, a sanction of default would be too severe for improper conduct alone, Wilson said last summer.

However, at a hearing last October on Biden’s request for financial sanctions against Byrne over his no-show, once again no attorney appeared for Byrne.

At that point, Wilson told Biden’s attorneys he would grant their request for sanctions and order Byrne in default for his refusal to obey the court’s orders.

Biden was seeking $1 in nominal damages for his “defamation per se” claim, which doesn’t require proof of emotional or reputational harm from Byrne’s accusations. However, he also sought punitive damages, citing what he says is Byrne’s malice in spreading a false bribery story.