Hunter Biden sues Fox News over explicit images featured in a streaming series

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (AP) — Hunter Biden accused Fox News in a lawsuit of unlawfully publishing explicit images of him as part of a streaming series.

The president's son filed the lawsuit Sunday in state court in Manhattan over images in “The Trial of Hunter Biden,” which debuted on the streaming service Fox Nation in 2022. The series features a “mock trial” of Hunter Biden on charges he has not faced and it includes images of Biden in the nude and engaged in sex acts, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims the dissemination of intimate images without his consent violated New York's so-called revenge porn law.

“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,” according to the lawsuit.

A Fox News spokesperson called it an “entirely politically motivated lawsuit" that was "devoid of merit" in an emailed statement. The statement noted that attorneys for Biden sent them a letter demanding its removal from streaming platforms in April 2024.

"The program was removed within days of the letter, in an abundance of caution, but Hunter Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of multiple investigations and is now a convicted felon. 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,” according to the emailed statement.

Hunter Biden was convicted last month of three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when, prosecutors argued, the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.

The mock trial in the series involved charges of bribery and improper financial dealings with foreign governments, charges that have not been brought against Hunter Biden, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and an order directing Fox to remove any copies of the explicit images.

The lawsuit claims promotional materials have not been entirely removed by Fox and that the program is still available on some third-party streaming platforms.