A federal judge awarded Hunter Biden $1.7 million in punitive damages on July 10 in a defamation lawsuit against Patrick Byrne, the former Overstock.com CEO and longtime conservative activist who accused Biden of seeking an $800 million bribe from Iran.
US District Judge Stephen Wilson, a Reagan appointee, entered a default judgment after Byrne repeatedly failed to appear for his own trial, fired his legal team mid-proceeding, and defied court orders throughout the years-long case. Wilson called Byrne’s pattern of delay “a coordinated strategy,” not excusable neglect, and ordered him to pay the $1 in nominal damages Biden requested along with the punitive award.
Biden sued Byrne in November 2023 over claims Byrne made in a magazine interview that Biden had approached Iranian officials in 2021 offering to persuade his father, then President Joe Biden, to unfreeze roughly $8 billion in Iranian assets in exchange for an $800 million payment, and that the arrangement would have influenced US negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. The lawsuit also cited a social media post Byrne shared the day after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, which implied Biden’s alleged conduct had contributed to the violence.
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Wilson found Byrne acted with “intentional misrepresentation” and “conscious disregard” for Biden’s rights, noting Byrne continued to repost the claims and urge his followers to spread them even after the lawsuit was filed, and kept repeating the allegations on talk shows during the litigation. Byrne’s own account traced the bribery claim back to an Iranian official relying on hearsay from the son of a Pakistani defense ministry official.
“This is a complete vindication for Hunter Biden against the false statements made about him by Patrick Byrne,” Bryan Sullivan, an attorney for Biden, said in a statement.
Byrne has since asked Wilson to stay or pause the default judgment; the judge denied the request, repeating that Byrne was “not credible” and had used a “playbook of dilatory tactics” to delay and avoid trial. Biden’s legal team said the judgment “is the floor, not the ceiling” of what Byrne owes and warned of further litigation if he repeats the claims.
