Hunter Biden sues Fox News over alleged 'revenge porn' law violations
July 1 (UPI) -- Hunter Biden has filed a lawsuit against Fox News claiming the network violated New York's "revenge porn" law by showing intimate pictures of him without his approval, according to court documents.
The lawsuit filed Sunday night in a New York court claims the conservative Fox News network allegedly violated the state's revenge porn law, which "establishes the crime of unlawful dissemination or publication of an intimate image," by publishing private images without Biden's permission.
"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," the lawsuit filed with New York's Supreme Court alleges about the Oct. 2022 airing of Fox's "The Trial of Hunter Biden: A Mock Trial for the American People."
Among other requests, the lawsuit seeks compensation for damages set out by state law.
The miniseries program in question, removed by Fox after the president's son, 54, in April first threatened to sue over the matter, aired on the streaming service Fox Nation and broadcast nude images of Biden that was and allegedly still remains available on some platforms.
Biden's lawyers have claimed "unlawful commercial exploitation" of his image, name and likeness took place in images depicting him close to or in the nude or engaging in sex acts.
It arrives as a new and similar "revenge porn" law went into effect Monday in Massachusetts, now the 49th state to prohibit revenge porn, leaving South Carolina as the only state to not outlaw "revenge porn" actions.
Fox, however, called the suit "entirely politically motivated" and "devoid of merit," pointing to how Hunter Biden "did not complain" until April.
"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," the Rupert Murdoch-owned television network said in a statement.
Hunter Biden's lawyers filed court papers last week in Delaware seeking a new trial following his June 11 conviction on all three felony gun charges for allegedly lying on a federal background form about drug addiction in order to obtain a firearm.
"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," Fox says.
The president's son still is facing federal tax charges in California in an upcoming trial.
