attorneys for Hunter Biden It plans to sue Fox News “in the near future,” according to a letter sent to the network and obtained by NBC News.
In the April 23 letter, Fox News Channel and Fox News Digital warn of lawsuits stemming from the network’s alleged “conspiracy and subsequent actions for defamation. Mr. Biden and paint him in a false light, unlicensed commercial exploitation of his image, name and likeness and illegal publication of hacked intimate pictures of him.”
Biden has hired attorney Mark Geragos and his firm to represent him in the Fox lawsuit. The letter is the second to Fox this month. According to a source familiar with Biden’s legal efforts, the earlier letter was turned over to Fox’s counsel two weeks ago, and the network asked for more time to respond. According to Geragos, the network has yet to respond to the April 23 letter, which has a Thursday, April 26, deadline to respond. The letter is signed by Tina Glandian, a partner at Geragos & Geragos who is working on the case.
Fox News did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The new legal threat comes nearly a year after Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems nearly $800 million to settle defamation claims related to Fox’s coverage of election fraud allegations in the 2020 election. Fox News also agreed to a $12 million settlement with a former employee who claimed she was pressured to provide misleading information as part of the Dominion case.
Fox is currently facing a $2.7 billion lawsuit filed by Smartmatic, another voting system company in the Fox News spotlight, as well as shareholder claims against company directors for allowing the channel to air the claims during the 2020 election. . Fox said in its latest financial disclosures it would dispute the allegations, but acknowledged there could be a “material” adverse impact on the company’s business and financial condition.
Hunter Biden’s plan to launch legal action against Fox News has been in the works for more than a year, according to sources familiar with the matter. Biden’s legal efforts, and was inspired in part by the success of the Dominion lawsuit and the ongoing Smartmatic lawsuit. The effort took on new significance when it was revealed that the bribery allegations aired stemmed from FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who was indicted by a special prosecutor in February.
Geragos said in a statement: “For the past five years, Fox News has relentlessly attacked and caricatured Hunter Biden in order to boost ratings and make money. The recent indictment of FBI whistleblower Smirnov exposed a disinformation conspiracy sponsored by Fox, launched by their paid agents, and funded by the Fox enterprise. We plan to bring them to justice.”
Hunter Biden has been in the Fox News spotlight for the past few years. A review of network transcripts by the group Media Matters cites at least 13,440 records about Hunter Biden since January 2023. Biden’s legal team believes the number of filings over many years makes the potential case just as important, if not more, than the Dominion case. sources familiar with legal strategy.
The Biden letter specifically refers to Fox’s allegations of bribery by Smirnov, who was indicted in February for making false statements to the FBI about the Bidens. “Smirnov and the revelations after the indictment basically closed the loop on the conspiracy,” Geragos told NBC News.
The letter claims that Fox News knew at the time that the bribery allegations were unconfirmed, but continues to say the source is “highly credible” and demands corrections and retractions, including on-air statements from TV anchors “including Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters.” , and Maria Bartiromo to let their followers know they shared a debunked allegation from a federally indicted source.
The letter also claims that Fox’s airing of “intimate images” of Hunter Biden, which his lawyers claim were “hacked, stolen and/or manipulated,” violates Biden’s civil rights as well as copyright law. Much of the letter focused on Fox’s six-part “trial trial” titled “Trial of Hunter Biden,” which airs in October 2021 and is described as what a trial might look like if Biden is indicted on FARA or bribery charges. for which Biden is accused. “While using certain factual information, the series deliberately manipulates facts, distorts the truth, takes events out of context, and invents dialogue for entertainment. Thus, the viewer of the series cannot decipher what is truth and what is fiction.” The letter calls for the series to be pulled from all streaming services.
This new lawsuit comes as Biden prepares for a summer of criminal trials. His first trial on gun charges in Delaware begins June 3, and the tax case is expected to go to trial in August.