After Hunter Biden Announces Plans To Sue Fox News, Network Removes Documentary About Him

In a letter sent to Fox News, Hunter Biden‘s lawyers announced plans to sue the network “imminently.”

The letter put Fox News Channel and Fox News Digital on notice for litigation claims over the network’s alleged “conspiracy and subsequent actions to defame Mr. Biden and paint him in a false light, the unlicensed commercial exploitation of his image, name and likeness, and the unlawful publication of hacked intimate images of him.”

Hunter hired attorney Mark Geragos to represent him in the litigation efforts. A letter sent to Fox earlier this month was hand-delivered to the network’s counsel, who asked for more time to respond. The most recent letter included a response deadline of April 26.

“[Hunter’s lawyers] have belatedly chosen to publicly attack Fox News’ constitutionally protected coverage regarding their client,” a Fox News media spokesperson said in a statement. “Mr. Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of investigations by both the Department of Justice and Congress, has been indicted by two different U.S. Attorney’s Offices in California and Delaware and has admitted to multiple incidents of wrongdoing. Consistent with the First Amendment, Fox News has accurately covered these highly publicized events as well as the subsequent indictment of an FBI informant who was the source of certain claims made about Mr. Biden.”

The network quickly announced that it would remove the content “out of an abundance of caution.”

The threat of litigation comes a year after Fox News paid almost $800 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle defamation claims about Fox’s coverage of election fraud claims during the 2020 election.

The network is currently facing a $2.7 billion lawsuit brought by Smartmatic, another voting system company that was a focus of Fox’s coverage, as well as suits by shareholders against the company’s directors for allowing the channel to air the allegations.

“For the last five years, Fox News has relentlessly attacked Hunter Biden and made him a caricature in order to boost rating and for its financial gain,” Geragos said in a statement. “The recent indictment of FBI informant Smirnov has exposed the conspiracy of disinformation that has been fueled by Fox, enabled by their paid agents and monetized by the Fox enterprise. We plan on holding them accountable.”