Hunter Biden wants arrest warrant for Overstock CEO in defamation case
The article reports that Hunter Biden has filed a motion seeking an arrest warrant for Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com, in connection with an ongoing defamation lawsuit. Byrne has failed to appear in court or provide contact details, hindering the finding process. The lawsuit stems from Byrne’s claims in a 2021 interview alleging that Hunter Biden attempted to negotiate with the Iranian government to unfreeze $8 billion in exchange for $800 million funneled to Biden’s account-allegations Biden calls false and defamatory. Despite ongoing litigation, the trial has not yet started, with both parties having changed legal counsel. Byrne, who has also been involved in a separate lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems over election-related claims, remains defiant on social media. The motion highlights Byrne’s repeated disregard for court orders and his attempts to evade legal responsibilities.
Hunter Biden wants arrest warrant for Overstock CEO in defamation case
Hunter Biden filed a motion on Saturday calling for the arrest of former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne amid a defamation lawsuit for which Byrne has not appeared in court.
Biden’s attorneys filed the motion for a bench warrant Saturday, roughly two years after Biden filed suit against Byrne. This most recent filing alleges that Byrne has refused to provide a physical address or email address, so Biden’s attorneys have been unable to contact Byrne in order to complete the discovery process in the case.
“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,” the motion read.
“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,” the motion continued.
A bench warrant would require Byrne to appear in court in order to avoid arrest.
This case centers on an interview Byrne gave to the Capitol Times Magazine, in which he alleges that he visited the Middle East in 2021. Byrne claimed he was made aware of Biden allegedly meddling in Iranian affairs, but did not cite a source.
“Hunter Biden was reaching out to the Iranian government in the fall of 2021 with the following offer: You Iranians have $8 billion frozen in a bank account in South Korea. My father will unfreeze it in return for $800 million being funneled into a numbered account for us,” Byrne is quoted in the article.
Biden referred to the allegations as “false and defamatory statements” in the lawsuit. Since then, Byrne has continued to post about the case on X.
“Hi Hunter. I understand [I] am going to be deposing you in about three weeks? Hoorah!” Byrne wrote in July. “Wait until you see what I have on you. Let us see how much more prison time I can get you.”
However, the trial has yet to begin, as Byrne has fired counsel, and so has Biden. Byrne was deposed by Abbe Lowell, the attorney Biden hired during his special counsel investigation and gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware. Since then, Biden fired Lowell and replaced him with Richard Harpootlian, who previously represented convicted killer Alex Murdaugh.
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Byrne is also in the middle of a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, which is accusing the former CEO of allegedly manufacturing and promoting false evidence claiming that Dominion machines were rigged to manipulate the results of the 2020 election. The litigation has been going on for four years.
In August 2019, Byrne resigned as CEO of Overstock after his comments about the “deep state” involved in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
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