Patrick Byrne defaults ahead of trial in Hunter Biden defamation lawsuit

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered former Overstock.com CEO and adamant 2020 election denier Patrick Byrne in default after he stopped defending himself in the defamation lawsuit brought by Hunter Biden that was headed to trial next week.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson ordered Byrne in default at the request of Biden’s attorneys and vacated the Oct. 14 trial date.

The order opens the door for a default judgment against the Florida-based millionaire, whom Hunter Biden sued over repeated claims that Biden sought an $800 million bribe from Iran in exchange for the thaw of $8 billion in Iranian funds frozen in a South Korean bank account by his father President Joe Biden’s administration.

Byrne, 62, resigned as Overstock.com’s CEO in 2019 after a reported relationship with convicted Russian spy Maria Butina. He later became involved in efforts to challenge the legitimacy of President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.

In July, when the jury trial was initially about to start, Byrne dodged an attempt by Biden to put him default when he failed to appear in person at court in downtown Los Angeles, as his then-attorneys had told the judge he would, and instead fired his lawyers and had a new defense team show up for the first time.

Wilson refused to allow Byrne’s new set of lawyers to join the case at the last minute, noting that the lead attorney, Michigan-based Stephanie Lambert, had been disqualified last year for violating court orders in a Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit against Byrne in the District of Columbia.

The judge, while calling Byrne’s tactics a “three-ring circus,” declined to order him in default at the time and rescheduled trial for this month. He also gave Biden’s team another chance to subpoena Byrne about his finances, which they had intended to do at trial in reliance on the assurances by Byrne’s former lawyers that he would testify in person.

Because public policy requires that trials should be decided on the merits, a sanction of default would be too severe for improper conduct alone, Wilson, a Ronald Reagan appointee, said in July,

However, at a hearing last week on Biden’s request for financial sanctions against Byrne for having Biden’s trial team show up for nothing in July, no attorney made an appearance for Byrne.

At that point, Wilson told Biden’s attorneys that he would grant their request for sanctions and order Byrne in default for his continuing refusal to obey the court’s orders.

Biden is seeking $1 in nominal damages for his “defamation per se” claim, which doesn’t require proof of emotional or reputational harm from Byrne’s accusations. However, he also aims to pursue punitive damages, citing what he says is Byrne’s malice in spreading a false bribery story.

Byrne is no longer represented in the litigation and couldn’t be reached for comment.

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