Patrick Byrne speaks during a panel discussion at the Nebraska Election Integrity Forum on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz), President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden leaves after a court appearance, Wednesday, July 26, 2023, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
Hunter Biden’s attempt to have Patrick Byrne answer questions under oath in a year-old defamation lawsuit in California federal court has been frustrated by the former Overstock CEO and 2020 election denier’s recent move to Dubai amid claims of a Venezuelan “bounty on his head,” court documents show.
A joint statement from Biden and Byrne’s attorneys filed last week indicates that the plaintiff and defendant have been unable to agree on where and how Byrne’s deposition will occur.
Nearly one year ago, before his Delaware felony gun convictions and California tax evasion admissions, Biden filed a defamation suit against Byrne, claiming that the former Overstock CEO defamed him when he falsely accused him of committing “despicable and treasonous crimes” involving his father President Joe Biden, bribery, Iran, and the Israel-Hamas war.
Byrne, also facing a Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, was allegedly put on notice that his “treasonous crimes” allegations were “false,” but he nonetheless “doubled down” in a post on Oct. 8, 2023, to link the “horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel” to Hunter Biden’s “purported crimes,” the complaint said.
Biden’s lawyers on Oct. 9 told U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrica Donahue that Byrne’s insistence on being deposed in-person in the United Arab Emirates or remotely on Zoom poses problems, since there is a “lack of legal authority authorizing such a deposition to occur in Dubai of a U.S. citizen for use in a U.S. lawsuit.”
Those issues would not exist if the deposition was done in London or Paris, the plaintiff said, but Byrne has “maintained for nearly a month now that he has moved his permanent residence to Dubai out of fear for his life[.]” Byrne apparently explained his move to Dubai was due to the belief that American law enforcement can’t “provide me with the safety I need for my personal safety.”
Court documents said that Byrne has no plans to return to the United States at least until after the 2024 presidential election. Why? Because, he says, his life is at risk as a consequence of “covert activities” in Venezuela [some citations removed for ease of reading]:
In this regard, after weeks of discussions regarding the scheduling of Defendant’s deposition, counsel for Defendant made written representations to Plaintiff’s counsel for the first time on September 11, 2024 that Defendant had moved his permanent residence to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and could not travel to the United States for his deposition because he “was recently notified by the United States DEA that the Venezuelan government has a $25,000,000 on his head.” Then, at the September 18, 2024 IDC, defense counsel made the same representations to the Court, this time on the record: “[Defendant] had been involved in some covert activities in Venezuela, and he was informed by the DEA that there is a $20 million bounty on his head, and he also had been receiving death threats because of that activity.”
After Biden’s attorneys said the defense “did not provide any identifying information or contact information for anyone sufficient to allow Plaintiff to confirm Defendant’s claims in this regard,” they noted that Byrne’s team also claimed to have learned “criminals in West Africa were cooperating to get [Byrne] in a position where [he] could be kidnapped.”
For the plaintiff, there are “no laws or procedures in Dubai which provide clarity as to the legality of conducting a deposition there, either in-person or remotely,” so the case “simply cannot proceed” forward unless this impasse is resolved.
Byrne, for his part, asserted there is no issue at all — if Biden’s attorney would just travel to Dubai.
“On October 4, 2024, this court ruled that Defendant resides in Dubai. The defendant has agreed to be deposed in person in Dubai. He has agreed to pay for one of Plaintiff’s lawyers and the deposition professionals’ travel expenses, accommodation, and travel time to go to Dubai to depose him there but not including the time spent at his deposition,” the filing said. “Since Dubai is not a member of the Hague Convention treaty and is not bound by its procedures, Defendant’s deposition can be taken right away.”
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