Hunter Biden is asking a federal judge to order the arrest of former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne for ignoring court orders in a libel suit Biden filed against the conspiracy theorist and conservative political activist.
Biden’s attorneys filed a motion Saturday with U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson, urging him to issue a bench warrant against Byrne for failing to respond to court orders requiring him to appear in court and provide an email or physical address to receive official communications related to the suit.
“Defendant is a billionaire who ignores court orders while concealing his assets overseas or in cryptocurrencies specifically created to evade governmental authority and who flouts this Court’s authority,” Biden’s lawyer, Richard Harpootlian, wrote.
“The appropriate sanction is to force Defendant to appear and defend (or confess) the case on the merits. The Court has repeatedly ordered Defendant to appear, and Defendant has repeatedly ignored the Court,” Harpootlian added. “Plaintiff therefore respectfully requests that the Court compel Defendant to appear by issuance of a bench warrant.”
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, filed the libel lawsuit in 2023. It claims Byrne knowingly defamed Hunter Biden on social media in 2021 by alleging that he sought an $800 million payment from Iran in order to unfreeze $8 billion in Iranian funds. The suit claims that Byrne repeated the post immediately after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and that re-posting implied Biden had “contributed” to those attacks through his alleged dealings with Iran.
The suit has been hamstrung from the outset by a series of difficulties that Biden’s side and the judge have attributed to Byrne, who has often proven hard to reach. He has claimed to be unable to travel due to heart problems and to have taken up residence in Dubai in order to avoid what he claims is an effort by the Venezuelan government to assassinate him.
The judge’s attempt to take the case to a jury in trial in Los Angeles in July proved to be a fiasco. On the eve of trial, Byrne repeatedly fired his attorneys and attempted to replace them with other lawyers, some of whom were denied permission to appear by the judge due to their records of discipline in other courts. Byrne himself has never shown up in court, according to the judge.
Wilson, a Reagan appointee, described the situation at the time as a “three-ring circus,” according to Courthouse News. However, he declined Biden’s request for a default judgment and reset the trial for Oct. 14.
The judge did grant Biden the right to explore Byrne’s financial condition, but Biden’s attorneys say they’ve been unable to contact Byrne since he ignored the judge’s order to provide a current address.
Biden’s attorneys noted that despite Byrne’s lack of communication with the court, he has continued to be a prolific poster on X. They arranged to post copies of the court’s orders in replies to Byrne’s messages on X and are asking the judge to accept that as formal notice to Byrne of those orders.
Byrne resigned from Overstock.com in 2019, following reports about his relationship with Maria Butina, who pleaded guilty to being an unregistered foreign agent for Russia. He was actively involved in President Donald Trump’s attempts to challenge his loss in the 2020 election, was a regular presence at White House meetings on the subject, and was interviewed by the House Jan. 6 Committee.
Byrne has also funded efforts to find proof of Trump’s claims that the election was rigged or stolen.
