Hunter Biden files a lawsuit against Fox News for a "mock trial" of him

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Monday, July 1, 2024

Hunter Biden in 2014.
Image: Indian Prime Minister's Office.

On Monday, attorneys representing Hunter Biden filed a lawsuit against Fox News for the miniseries The Trial of Hunter Biden, claiming they “targeted Mr. (Hunter) Biden in an effort to harass, annoy, alarm, and humiliate him, and tarnish his reputation.”

The lawsuit read, "[w]hile using certain true information, the series intentionally manipulates the facts, distorts the truth, narrates happenings out of context, and invents dialogue intended to entertain.”

In late April, Fox News removed the miniseries a day after Hunter Biden threatened to sue them. The lawyers wrote in the lawsuit that Fox News has not taken down promotional clips from its social media pages, and the miniseries remains available "online and in the public domain."

The Trial of Hunter Biden was a six-part miniseries on Fox Nation, a streaming network, which was promoted on Fox News featuring a fictionalized "mock trial," Biden’s lawsuit said it depicted actual emails and private "intimate images (both still and video) of Mr. Biden depicting him in the nude, depicting an unclothed or exposed intimate part of him, as well as engaged in sex acts."

Biden alleges Fox News knew the emails and intimate images and videos were hacked or stolen and published for entertainment, which he claims violates New York’s revenge porn statute.

Fox News spokesperson said in a statement: “[t]he program was removed within days of the letter, in an abundance of caution, but Hunter Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of multiple investigations and is now a convicted felon. Consistent with the First Amendment, Fox News has accurately covered the newsworthy events of Mr. Biden’s own making.”

Biden's lawsuit also adds: “[t]he miniseries is fictionalized; it is not a news event. It was made for the purpose of trade and advertising, and merely exploits Mr. Biden’s name, image, and likeness for Fox’s commercial benefit.”

Biden was convicted for illegally possessing a firearm and lying about his illegal drug use to buy a gun in a Delaware trial in June. He also awaits trial in California for allegedly not paying US$1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2019.


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