Hunter Biden dropped a lawsuit against Fox News just hours after Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection in November.
“Hunter Biden on Sunday abruptly dropped a lawsuit he filed last month against Fox News over the network’s fictionalized miniseries that he alleged included sexually explicit images of him without consent,” CNN reports.
BREAKING: Hunter Biden drops his lawsuit against Fox News. pic.twitter.com/DYchUdIb3V
— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) July 22, 2024
🚨 #BREAKING: Hunter Biden has just DROPPED his lawsuit against Fox News
Interesting timing! pic.twitter.com/IojAFLhdSM
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 22, 2024
Per CNN:
The decision came less than a month after the president’s son sued Fox News, claiming the right-wing network unlawfully published “intimate images” of him in a 2022 miniseries about his legal troubles on the Fox Nation streaming service.
Representatives for Hunter Biden didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday. A Fox News spokesperson declined to comment.
The miniseries, “The Trial of Hunter Biden,” was a six-part offering that featured a dramatized “mock trial” about Hunter Biden’s overseas financial dealings that led, in part, to his federal tax indictment and claims that fueled House Republicans’ stalled impeachment inquiry into his father.
Fox News removed the miniseries from its platforms in late April after Biden threatened to file a lawsuit. Nonetheless, he sued the network on June 30.
At the time, a Fox News spokesperson claimed the lawsuit was meritless and “entirely politically motivated,” and said the network looked forward to “vindicating our rights in court.”
Hunter Biden Drops Lawsuit Against Fox News https://t.co/jpn5Y4ohJP
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) July 22, 2024
WATCH:
BREAKING: Lawyers for Hunter Biden plan to sue Fox News 'imminently, according to a letter sent to the network and obtained by NBC News. pic.twitter.com/ydfBYKhBFu
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 29, 2024
From The Hollywood Reporter:
Biden alleged the series “intentionally manipulates the facts” and “distorts the truth” while displaying images of him in the nude and engaged in sex acts. He brought claims for a violation of a New York’s so-called revenge porn law, intentional infliction of emotional distress and unjust enrichment.
A Fox News spokesperson referred The Hollywood Reporter to the channel’s original statement in response to the suit.
“This entirely politically motivated lawsuit is devoid of merit,” the statement said. “The core complaint stems from a 2022 streaming program that Mr. Biden did not complain about until sending a letter in late April 2024. The program was removed within days of the letter, in an abundance of caution, but Hunter Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of multiple investigations and is now a convicted felon.”
Biden was convicted last month on federal gun charges, though he’s never been charged for crimes connected with bribery or foreign lobbying at the center of Fox’s series.