By Avalon Pernell |Bloomberg
Hunter Biden sued Fox News for streaming a miniseries that he claims included “intimate images” of him without his consent, violating a New York “revenge porn” law.
The president’s son filed his lawsuit Sunday in New York state court, with Fox News moving it to federal court on Monday. The complaint focuses on 2022’s The Trial of Hunter Biden, a six-part “mock trial” that was streamed on the Fox Nation site.
Biden says in his suit that the series was fiction, not news, and exploited his name, image and likeness for Fox News’ commercial benefit. But though the trial was fictional, Biden claims that the “evidence” presented included real images of him in the nude and engaging in sex acts.
“Fox published and disseminated these intimate images to its vast audience of millions as part of an entertainment program in order to humiliate, harass, annoy, and alarm Mr. Biden and to tarnish his reputation,” Biden said in his suit.
Fox News said in a statement that the suit was “entirely politically motivated” and “devoid of merit.”
“Hunter Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of multiple investigations and is now a convicted felon,” a network spokesperson said. “Consistent with the First Amendment, Fox News has accurately covered the newsworthy events of Mr. Biden’s own making, and we look forward to vindicating our rights in court.”
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According to the suit, the fictionalized trial focused on a foreign corruption case against Biden. He hasn’t been charged with any of the crimes raised in the series, though he was convicted of a gun charge in June and faces a pending prosecution for tax violations.
A 2019 New York law gave individuals the right to sue over the dissemination of private, intimate images of them without their consent. Biden is also suing Fox News for emotional distress and unjust enrichment. He’s seeking damages and the deletion of intimate images.
Biden’s lawyers signaled in April that they were planning to sue over The Trial of Hunter Biden. The series was subsequently removed from the Fox Nation site, an action the spokesperson said was out of “an abundance of caution.”
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