Columbia lawyer gets nearly $2m for Hunter Biden in defamation suit
With the help of one of South Carolina’s most well-known attorneys, Hunter Biden secured nearly $2 million in damages following a civil suit for defamation against former Overstock.com CEO, Patrick Byrne.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson of the Central District of California awarded Biden $1.7 million in punitive damages and $34,969 in sanctions against Byrne following a 2023 defamation suit. Columbia attorney Dick Harpootlian was one of four lawyers representing Biden in the case.
Although not licensed to practice law in California, the court granted Harpootlian permission — known as “pro hac vice” or “for this occasion” — to join Biden’s legal team.
“This decision affirms that the rule of law still exists in this country,” Harpootlian posted on Facebook. “If Mr. Byrne repeats any of these claims, we will see him back in court.”
Biden’s victory came on procedural — he was granted a motion for default judgment — rather than substantive grounds as the case never made it before a jury.
That’s because Byrne failed to show up for trial set for July 29, 2025, according to court records. In addition, he’d failed to appear to multiple court hearings and ignored several court orders, according to Wilson.
In response to the court’s ruling, Byrne tried to get Wilson to stay or pause the order for default judgment. Wilson, however, denied the request and said, in his order, Byrne was “not credible” and used a “playbook of dilatory tactics,” to delay or circumvent trial and to repeatedly defy the court.
On June 27, 2023, the Capitol Times Magazine published an article containing an interview with Byrne, where he claimed that Biden had attempted to leverage his connection with his father, then-former President Joe Biden, to secure an $800 million bribe from the Iranian government in exchange for favors from the U.S. government, according to Wilson’s order.
In a motion for summary judgment by Byrne in July 2023, the court found “substantial evidence that (Byrne) knew the defamatory statements he made about (Biden) were false at the time of publication or at least acted with reckless disregard as to their falsity.”
Following Wilson’s ruling, Byrne moved to the court to vacate or set aside the judgment, to which Wilson denied.
Byrne “is not credible, fabricates awesome and farfetched narratives to garner attention in the media and fabricated the defamatory story at issue in this case to damage (Biden’s) reputation,” Wilson’s order read.
