A federal judge in California has ordered Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of Overstock.com, to pay Hunter Biden $1.7m in punitive damages for defamation over false claims that Biden sought a bribe from Iran to lobby his father, then US president Joe Biden, to unfreeze $8bn in Iranian assets.
Judge Stephen Wilson of the US District Court for the Central District of California ruled on Friday that Byrne had made the statements with 'actual malice', knowing them to be false. Byrne had claimed that an Iranian official told him about the alleged scheme, but the judge noted that Byrne provided no evidence and that the narrative appeared fabricated.
The case had been scheduled for a jury trial in October, but Byrne failed to appear and fired his lead trial attorney, leading the judge to enter a default judgment as a sanction for 'repeated, intentional disobedience of court orders'. The judge also ordered Byrne to pay approximately $35,000 in court sanctions.
In addition to the punitive damages, the judge awarded Hunter Biden $1 in nominal damages. Bryan Sullivan, an attorney for Biden, said the judgment was 'the floor, not the ceiling' of what Byrne owes, and warned that any repetition of the claims would lead to further legal action.
The ruling comes as Hunter Biden has been increasing his public presence through social media and announced a series of essays on Substack. It follows a pardon from his father for federal gun and tax convictions.
