Former Overstock CEO and 2020 election conspiracy theorist Patrick Byrne asked a judge not to force him to pay Hunter Biden's lawyers as a sanction for making everyone show up for a summertime defamation trial in California that never happened.
Claiming he was "unaware" of developments in the case after "acting prudently" in the "good cause" firings of his lawyers right before trial, Byrne asserted he didn't willfully disobey a court order because he was never "given notice and an opportunity to be heard" on the sanctions issue. Instead, Byrne shifted the blame to Biden's attorneys, stating they "pursued an aggressive litigation strategy" with a "flurry of filings" when he was a pro se defendant, and thus "he did not receive notice."
The Monday request for U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson was the latest indication that Byrne is trying to bring the case back from the brink of a loss by default through attorney Robert Tyler, who once represented a former Trump White House policy analyst Biden sued over the posting of the "Laptop Report" online.
Former President Joe Biden's son filed the defamation lawsuit in late 2023, claiming that Byrne defamed him when he falsely accused him of committing "despicable and treasonous crimes" involving bribery and Iran. Biden alleged that Byrne was "told that his allegations are false" and that a retraction demand was made, but Byrne instead "doubled down" in a subsequent post linking Hunter Biden and his "purported crimes" to the...
A bitter legal battle at JPMorgan Chase has taken another dramatic turn after executive Lorna Hajdini filed a defamation lawsuit against former banker Chirayu Rana, accusing him of making up false...