Hunter Biden, the embattled son of President Joe Biden, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive officer of Overstock.com. 

Politico reports that Biden filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, Nov. 8, in the Central District of California's federal courthouse.

The outlet notes that Biden filed the lawsuit "on the same day that House Republicans rolled out a batch of subpoenas targeting him and his family as part of their impeachment inquiry."

This is probably not a coincidence.

Who is Byrne and what is he alleged to have done?

As mentioned at the outset, Byrne is the former CEO of Overstock.com. But, more relevant, here, is the fact that Byrne is an ally of former President Donald Trump.

Not only that, but Byrne has opposed the political left's coronavirus narrative - among others - and he has raised questions about the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The allegations made by Biden against Byrne regard comments that Byrne made in June and October of this year.

"In an interview published in June, Byrne accused the president’s son of reaching out to the government of Iran and offering to have his father unfreeze Iranian money in exchange for a bribe, according to the complaint," Politico reports.

The outlet adds, "The lawsuit notes that Byrne re-posted the Iran allegations on X, formerly known as Twitter, the day after Hamas fighters killed more than 1,400 Israeli citizens in a brutal attack."

That's defamation

In the lawsuit, Hunter Biden claims that Byrne has defamed him with these statements.

The lawsuit reads:

These defamatory statements by Byrne are not merely false and not merely malicious — they are completely outrageous. Byrne knows his statements are baseless and yet published and republished them anyway, and he continues to propagate his lies to anyone who will listen, including his hundreds of thousands of social media followers.

Hunter Biden's attorneys go on to write, "The clear implication of Byrne’s October 8, 2023, posts was that Plaintiff’s allegedly criminal and corrupt actions had contributed to the terrorist attacks by Hamas."

Biden, in the court filing, claims that he has asked Byrne, formally, to retract the statements, but that Byrne has refused to do so.

Byrne, for his part, has responded to the lawsuit with a social media post, writing:

Hunter’s lawsuit against me (my interpretation): "Now that I’ve got Daddy’s DOJ under control… Let’s silence Byrne with a lawsuit + gag order." Good luck with that. PS Hunter, my 1st witness is a 35 year federal agent who will attest I told the truth and FBI verified it.