Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, is gunning for the arrest of Patrick Byrne, the former Overstock.com CEO, over a messy defamation spat that’s got more twists than a soap opera.
Politico reported that Biden's feud with Byrne centers on Byrne’s 2021 social media claims that Biden angled for an $800 million payout from Iran to unlock billions in frozen funds, alongside wild insinuations tying him to violence after Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel in October 2023.
Let’s roll back the clock to 2021, when Byrne first aired these eyebrow-raising accusations on social platforms, painting Biden as a middleman in a shady international deal.
Fast forward to 2023, and Hunter Biden had had enough, slapping Byrne with a libel lawsuit for dragging his name through the mud with what his team calls baseless lies.
Things got uglier when Byrne doubled down, reposting the inflammatory content right after the Hamas attack, hinting at some dark connection between Biden and Iran’s role in regional chaos.
Biden’s legal crew isn’t playing around—they filed a motion on a recent Saturday, begging a federal judge in California to issue a bench warrant for Byrne’s arrest over his no-show attitude in court.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson, a Reagan-era appointee, called this whole mess a “three-ring circus,” and frankly, who can argue with that assessment?
Byrne’s been dodging court orders like a cat dodges a bath, refusing to show up or even provide a simple email or address for official notices.
His excuses? Heart issues and a supposed assassination threat from Venezuela, which has him holed up in Dubai—conveniently far from any courtroom.
Attempts to get this case before a Los Angeles jury earlier in July turned into a complete disaster, with Byrne firing lawyers left and right, only to replace them with ones barred from practicing due to past disciplinary issues.
Judge Wilson, showing more patience than a saint, denied Biden’s push for a default judgment and reset the trial for mid-October, giving Byrne yet another chance to play by the rules.
Meanwhile, Biden’s attorneys can’t even track the man down to discuss his finances, which the judge allowed them to investigate, since Byrne ignored every order to share his whereabouts.
Here’s the kicker—while Byrne ghosts the court, he’s yapping away on X like there’s no tomorrow, prompting Biden’s team to reply to his posts with court orders in a desperate bid for formal notice.
Biden’s lawyer, Richard Harpootlian, didn’t mince words, stating, “Defendant is a billionaire who ignores court orders,” while stashing assets in cryptocurrencies or overseas to dodge accountability. If that’s not a modern-day hide-and-seek, what is?
Harpootlian also urged, “The appropriate sanction is to force Defendant to appear,” arguing that Byrne’s blatant disregard for judicial authority demands a bench warrant to drag him into the ring.
It’s hard not to wonder if this is less about justice and more about making a public spectacle, but conservatives know the importance of holding folks accountable, no matter who their daddy is.