{"id":3629,"date":"2026-07-11T11:46:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T06:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3629"},"modified":"2026-07-11T11:46:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T06:46:44","slug":"patrick-byrne-owes-1-7m-in-damages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3629","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Byrne Owes $1.7m in Damages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<div id=\"attachment_5569310\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5569310\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5569310\" src=\"https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2024\/09\/AP24249543013896.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2459\" height=\"1639\" srcset=\"https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2024\/09\/AP24249543013896.jpg 2459w, https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2024\/09\/AP24249543013896-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2024\/09\/AP24249543013896-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2024\/09\/AP24249543013896-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2024\/09\/AP24249543013896-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2024\/09\/AP24249543013896-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2024\/09\/AP24249543013896-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2459px) 100vw, 2459px\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5569310\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A federal judge in Los Angeles awarded $1.7 million in punitive damages to <strong>Hunter Biden<\/strong> on Friday as part of a defamation case against <strong>Patrick Byrne<\/strong>, the former CEO of Overstock.com.<\/p>\n<p>Byrne <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2023\/11\/08\/hunter-biden-sues-former-overstock-com-ceo-00126240\">claimed<\/a> in 2023 that Biden pledged to get his father, then-President <strong>Joe Biden<\/strong>, to unfreeze $8 billion in Iranian assets in exchange for an $800 million bribe.\u00a0 The younger Biden\u2019s lawsuit says Byrne made this claim in an interview in June of that year, and again in a social media post the day after the Oct. 7 attacks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\" data-testid=\"plain-text-block\">\u201cThe clear implication of Byrne\u2019s October 8, 2023 posts was that Plaintiff\u2019s allegedly criminal and corrupt actions had contributed to the terrorist attacks by Hamas,\u201d the complaint stated.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\">On Friday, Judge <strong>Stephen Wilson<\/strong> of the Central District of California issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/biden-byrne-punitive-damages.pdf\">ruling<\/a> awarding Hunter Biden punitive damages:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Here, the evidence is clear and convincing that defendant has engaged in intentional misrepresentation with conscious disregard towards plaintiff\u2019s rights. Defendant\u2019s defamation went far beyond mere negligence. In fact, defendant has admitted that after the offending article was published, defendant repeatedly reposted the article across social media platforms and encouraged his followers on those platforms to promote it further. In fact, during the pendency of this litigation, even while Defendant was defying the Court\u2019s orders and failing to appear at hearings, Defendant appeared on talk shows and restated the same defamatory statements at issue in the case.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Biden sought $1 in nominal damages, which Wilson granted. The judge also ordered Byrne to pay about $35,000 in court sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a complete vindication for Hunter Biden against the false statements made about him by Patrick Byrne,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/courthousenews.com\/hunter-biden-wins-1-7-million-in-punitive-damages-against-patrick-byrne\/\">said<\/a> <strong>Bryan Sullivan<\/strong>, an attorney for Biden. \u201cAs found by the court, Byrne had no basis to say that Hunter had any involvement with Iran whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Byrne is a longtime supporter of <strong>Donald Trump<\/strong> and has promoted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2020\/12\/14\/a-tycoons-deep-state-conspiracy-dive\">conspiracy theories<\/a> about the 2020 election and Covid vaccines. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/08\/22\/business\/overstock-ceo-patrick-byrne.html\">resigned<\/a> as CEO of Overstock in August 2019 after he disclosed having a romantic relationship with convicted Russian spy <strong>Maria Butina<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong A federal judge in Los Angeles awarded $1.7 million in punitive damages to Hunter Biden on Friday as part of a defamation case against Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com. Byrne claimed in 2023 that Biden pledged to get his father, then-President Joe Biden, to unfreeze $8 billion in Iranian&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/AP24249543013896.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}