Hunter Biden revives lawsuit against Fox News over explicit images used in streaming series

October 15, 2024 GMT
FILE - Hunter Biden, accompanied by his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, arrives at federal court, June 11, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
FILE - Hunter Biden, accompanied by his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, arrives at federal court, June 11, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Hunter Biden has revived a lawsuit that accuses Fox News of illegally publishing explicit images of him as part of a streaming series.

The president’s son first sued Fox in New York in July over images used in the Fox Nation series “The Trial of Hunter Biden,” a “mock trial” of Hunter Biden on charges he has not faced. He dropped the suit without explanation three weeks later, the same day President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.

On Tuesday, Hunter Biden filed a largely identical suit in state court in Manhattan, again arguing that the dissemination of intimate images without his consent violates New York’s so-called revenge porn law. The new suit adds one current Fox executive one former executive as named defendants.

Biden’s attorney, Tina Glandian, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on why the suit was revived.

In a filing Tuesday, Fox asked that the case be moved to federal court. The company issued a statement describing the second suit as “once again devoid of any merit.”

“The core complaint stems from a 2022 streaming program that Mr. Biden did not complain about until sending a letter in late April 2024,” the statement said. “The program was removed within days of that 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.”

Biden was convicted in July of three felony firearms charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018. The six-part Fox Nation series depicted a dramatized court proceeding on different, fictional charges.