Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, has reportedly left United States soil and is staying in South Africa because of legal troubles.
That’s according to former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler, who is in a legal battle with Hunter. Ziegler claims the president’s son is trying to avoid deposition so he can stay in South Africa for three months.
The Hunter filed a lawsuit against Ziegler in 2023, accusing him of illegally hacking and leaking embarrassing content from his infamous laptop.
However, last Wednesday, Biden asked the federal court to voluntarily dismiss the case, claiming that he was broke.
In his filing, Biden claimed he is millions of dollars in debt and can not afford to continue the legal proceedings.
He attributed his financial problems to an unexpected decline in sales of his artwork and memoir after his father left office, along with the destruction of his Malibu home in the recent Los Angeles wildfires.
“It [the LA Wildfires] does not, however, serve as an excuse to avoid litigation responsibilities,” Ziegler’s lawyers wrote in Friday’s court filing.
Ziegler is fighting the dismissal of the lawsuit. He insists the case continue so he can seek recovery of nearly $200,000 in legal fees he has incurred. In court documents, Ziegler’s team said that Hunter Biden’s financial situation “isn’t nearly as dire as he claims” and suggests he has left the country to avoid answering to the court.
“We note that Mr. Biden did not expressly claim to have lost his home or belongings,” Ziegler’s legal team stated in their opposition filing.
The former Trump aide believes Biden has fled to South Africa – the home country of his wife, Melissa Cohen – beginning this week, “and that is why he is attempting to avoid his deposition,” according to court documents.
Ziegler’s team also referenced reporting by The New York Post that showed Biden’s home untouched by the wildfires, contradicting Biden’s claim that the fires left his residence “unlivable.”
Photographs published by The Post show surrounding homes destroyed by the Palisades Fire while Biden’s property remained intact.
In response, Biden’s legal team accused Ziegler of filing “emotionally charged” court documents and attempting “to downplay the impact” of the devastating fires.
“Accusations that [Hunter’s] counsel is lying about the basis for his motion is despicable,” Biden’s attorneys wrote.
The lawsuit stems from Ziegler’s publication of nearly 10,000 photos from Biden’s laptop on his non-profit website Marco Polo. Ziegler, who worked as an aide to trade adviser Peter Navarro during the first Trump administration, has consistently denied any illegal hacking, and said the content was already publicly available.
The case has drawn renewed attention after Biden’s extremely controversial pardon of his son in December 2024, just weeks before leaving office.
Hunter Biden had previously been convicted on criminal gun and tax fraud charges but served no time in prison.
Experts say it is very unusual for a defendant to fight against a case dismissal when a plaintiff wants to withdraw a lawsuit. Typically, defendants welcome such developments, but Ziegler is confident and has characterized Biden’s attempt to drop the case as “an abuse of the legal system.”
The court has not yet ruled on Biden’s motion to dismiss or Ziegler’s opposition.