Hunter Biden’s legal team, led by attorney Mark Geragos, is preparing to sue Fox News for defamation and exploiting his image and likeness — and it has the news network scrambling.
In a letter dated April 23, first obtained by NBC News, Biden’s lawyers put Fox News Channell on notice for potential litigation claims.
The letter accuses Fox of engaging in a “conspiracy and subsequent actions to defame Mr. Biden and paint him in a false light, the unlicensed commercial exploitation of his image, name, and likeness, and the unlawful publication of hacked intimate images of him.” Biden’s legal team had previously sent a letter to Fox two weeks ago, but the network requested more time to respond.
In response to the letter, Fox News announced that it has taken down a docuseries on its streaming service focusing on Hunter Biden.
The network stated, “This program was produced in and has been available since 2022. We are reviewing the concerns that have just been raised and — out of an abundance of caution in the interim — have taken it down.”
But earlier Fox News’ lawyers pushed back on the assertions made in Hunter’s attorney’s letter, stating:
Hunter Biden’s lawyers have belatedly chosen to publicly attack Fox News’ constitutionally protected coverage regarding their client. Mr. Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of investigations by both the Department of Justice and Congress, has been indicted by two different US Attorney’s Offices in California and Delaware, and has admitted to multiple incidents of wrongdoing. Consistent with the First Amendment, Fox News has accurately covered these highly publicized events as well as the subsequent indictment of an FBI informant who was the source of certain claims made about Mr. Biden.
Biden’s attorneys argue that the docuseries was produced for Fox’s streaming service “just for entertainment value,” lacked news value, and used explicit images of the president’s son to paint him in a negative light.
The threat of a new lawsuit comes nearly a year after Fox News settled defamation claims with Dominion Voting Systems for almost $800 million, related to the network’s coverage of election fraud claims in the 2020 election.
Fox is also facing a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting system company, as well as suits brought by shareholders against company directors.
Hunter Biden’s plan to pursue legal action against Fox News has been in the works for over a year, inspired in part by the success of the Dominion lawsuit and the ongoing Smartmatic lawsuit.
“For the last five years, Fox News has relentlessly attacked Hunter Biden and made him a caricature in order to boost ratings and for its financial gain,” Hunter’s lawyer claimed. “The recent indictment of FBI informant Smirnov has exposed the conspiracy of disinformation that has been fueled by Fox, enabled by their paid agents and monetized by the Fox enterprise. We plan on holding them accountable.”
Hunter Biden has been a frequent topic of Fox News coverage, with at least 13,440 mentions since January 2023, according to a review by Media Matters.
This new litigation push comes as Biden prepares for criminal trials this summer, with his first trial on gun charges in Delaware starting June 3 and his tax case expected to go to trial in August.