WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 10: Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs a House Oversight Committee meeting at Capitol Hill on January 10, 2024 in Washington, DC. The committee is meeting today as it considers citing him for Contempt of Congress. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Hunter Biden has sued Fox News for unlawfully publishing photos and videos of him in the streaming “mock trial” miniseries The Trial of Hunter Biden.
In late April, the network removed the six-part miniseries after Hunter’s attorneys threatened to sue it for violating “revenge” laws and publishing since-disproven bribery accusations as part of a scheme to portray him falsely.
On April 30, Fox News confirmed the miniseries’ removal and said it would remain down for at least a limited time pending a review.
The president’s son filed the lawsuit in a state court in Manhattan over images in The Trial of Hunter Biden, which debuted on the streaming service Fox Nation in October 2022.
The series features a “mock trial” of Hunter on charges he did not face.
It includes images and videos of him naked and engaged in private acts, according to his lawsuit.
The lawsuit stated that the mock trial in the series involved charges of bribery as well as improper financial dealings with foreign governments, which were not brought against Hunter.
“While using certain true information, the series intentionally manipulates the facts, distorts the truth, narrates happenings out of context and invents dialogue intended to entertain,” Hunter’s lawyers in the lawsuit.
Biden alleges Fox knew the private photos and videos were hacked or stolen but published them without his consent for entertainment purposes, thus violating New York’s revenge content statute.
“Fox published and disseminated these intimate images to its vast audience of millions as part of an entertainment program to humiliate, harass, annoy and alarm Mr. Biden and to tarnish his reputation,” the lawsuit stated.
Hunter’s lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and an order directing Fox to remove copies of the images.
It asserted that Fox did not fully remove promotional materials and that the program is still watchable on some third-party streaming platforms.
The president’s son is also suing for unfair enrichment and deliberate infliction of emotional distress.
“This entirely politically motivated lawsuit is devoid of merit,” a Fox News spokesperson said.
The statement mentioned that Hunter’s attorneys sent them a letter calling for the miniseries to be removed from streaming platforms in April 2024.
“The 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, and we look forward to vindicating our rights in court,” they added.
In April, California Judge Mark Scarsi ruled against Hunter’s attempt to reject the nine federal tax charges brought against him in California.
During a testimony in a Wilmington, Delaware courtroom on June 7, Hunter cried when his daughter, Naomi Biden, offered insight into her father’s lengthy battle with addiction and backed his defense against federal gun charges.
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