Hunter Biden on Sunday?abruptly?dropped a lawsuit?he filed last month?against Fox News over the network’s?fictionalized?miniseries?that he alleged included sexually explicit images of him without consent.
Biden?dropped the lawsuit?just?hours after his father, President Joe Biden, announced?his?decision?to withdraw from the 2024?presidential race, though it’s not clear if the timing is related.
The decision came less than a month after?the?president’s son sued?Fox News, claiming the?right-wing network unlawfully published “intimate images” of him in a 2022 miniseries?about his legal troubles?on the?Fox Nation?streaming service.
Representatives for Hunter Biden didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.?A Fox News spokesperson declined to comment.
The miniseries, “The Trial of Hunter Biden,” was a six-part offering that?featured a dramatized “mock trial” about?Hunter?Biden’s overseas financial dealings that led, in part, to his federal tax indictment and?claims?that fueled House Republicans’ stalled impeachment inquiry into his father.
Fox News?removed?the miniseries from?its platforms?in late April after Biden threatened to file a lawsuit. Nonetheless, he sued the network on?June 30.
At the time, a Fox News spokesperson claimed the lawsuit was meritless and “entirely politically motivated,” and said the network looked?forward to “vindicating our rights in court.”
“Consistent with the First Amendment, Fox News has accurately covered the newsworthy events of Mr. Biden’s own making,” the spokesperson said.
While Hunter Biden ended his lawsuit against Fox, his legal challenges continue.?Biden, 54, faces a?federal tax evasion trial scheduled for September. He was convicted earlier this year of three federal gun felonies in a separate trial.?He has not, however, been charged in connection with the bribery and foreign lobbying allegations that were at the center of Fox’s miniseries.
Earlier on Sunday, Biden released a statement praising his father’s?historic?decision to bow out of the 2024 race.
“I’m so lucky every night I get to tell him I love him, and to thank him,”?Biden?wrote. “I ask all Americans to join me tonight in doing the same.??Thank you, Mr. President.? I love you, Dad.”
