One of Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters has been ordered to pay Hunter Biden $1.7 million for defaming him with false allegations that Biden allegedly sought a bribe from Iran in 2021.
Patrick Byrne is the former CEO of Overstock.com, who was forced to resign in 2019 after being caught palling around with Russian spy Maria Butina. He’s also a supporter of Donald Trump, so he had no problem maliciously attacking one of Trump’s favorite targets: the Biden family.
Specifically, Byrne made an incredibly dubious claim that Hunter Biden sought to procure a bribe from Iran for his father, former President Joe Biden, in exchange for the release of $8 billion of Iranian assets. Byrne repeatedly made this claim, and his followers spread the lie across social media.
Well, if you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. Because a federal judge ordered Byrne to pay a large sum of money to Hunter Biden this week after Byrne failed to prove his claims in court.
“The evidence of Defendant’s [Byrne] hostility toward Plaintiff [Biden] indicates bias and a particular motive for dishonesty in this case,” US District Court Judge Stephen Wilson, a Reagan appointee, wrote in the ruling. “Here, the evidence is clear and convincing that Defendent has engaged in intentional misrepresentation with conscious disregard towards Plaintiff’s rights.”
“Overall, in the totality of circumstances, by far the most plausible explanation is that Defendant is not credible, fabricates awesome and far-fetched narratives to garner attention in the media, and fabricated the defamatory story at issue in this case to damage Plaintiff’s reputation,” Wilson continued.
Biden asked for and received $1 in nominal damages. The court also awarded Biden $1.7 million in punitive damages and ordered Byrne to pay an additional $35,000 in court sanctions.
The ruling could be a mere preview of what Trump could expect if and when every single person he has defamed files a lawsuit against him. It should also be pointed out that Trump’s surrender deal with Iran would hand over around $300 billion, far more than the amount Byrne falsely claimed Biden offered the Iranians in exchange for a bribe.
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