Hunter Biden seeks arrest of former Overstock.com CEO in defamation case

Source: Politico

09/13/2025 07:22 PM EDT


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.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/13/hunter-biden-defamation-overstock-00563164