Hunter Biden asked a federal judge to shield a $1.7 million defamation win from unpaid lawyers, while claiming he owns nothing and cannot pay.
The former first son wants the court to keep a default judgment against Overstock.com founder Patrick Byrne from flowing first to his old law firm. The Daily Wire reported that Biden’s current attorney moved Thursday to strike a lien Winston Taylor LLP filed against that payout.
Winston Taylor says it represented Biden in the Byrne case, congressional investigations, and his felony cases and still has not been paid. The firm is also suing him in D.C. court for millions in fees. Biden’s side says he is broke and that the firm took the work knowing the risk.
That fight lands on top of a judgment won when Byrne did not appear to defend himself. Byrne is appealing and has posted a $2.1 million bond to cover the award if he loses.
Just The News reported that U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson awarded Biden the $1.7 million after finding Byrne pushed false 2023 claims that Biden sought a bribe tied to Iranian funds. The judge described a coordinated effort motivated to defame him.
The Washington Examiner covered the same ruling, noting the case turned on allegations that Biden sought a massive bribe from Iran and that the award marked a legal win as Biden tried to rebuild his public image.
Winston Taylor answered the prospective payout with a notice of lien. Under that filing, any money collected would go first to satisfy the firm as creditor. Biden’s current lawyer, Brian Sullivan, filed paperwork to “strike” the lien.
Sullivan told The Daily Wire the firm understood the payment problem from the start.
"They took the case on knowing that he wasn’t able to pay them. They knew that was the situation. If he came into a sizable amount of money he always said he would pay, but they took it on with that risk,"
He added that Biden had hoped a legal defense fund would materialize.
"He hoped they could do a legal defense fund and raise money, but things didn’t turn out as anybody hoped,"
Sullivan also argued the contract Biden signed failed to explain the downside of a lien clearly enough, even though Biden is a lawyer himself. He said the lien hits his own fee interest too, because old bills could swallow the judgment before current counsel is paid.
Biden has testified that he has nothing left to seize.
"I don’t have any assets. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a phone."
Court filings from the firm this year paint a different picture of his conduct in the fee fight. Winston Taylor claimed Biden destroyed evidence, has been “evasive,” and “continues to make invalid excuses.” The firm did not return requests for comment.
Abbe Lowell, the politically connected Democrat who represented Biden at Winston Taylor, left the firm about a year and a half ago, Sullivan said. Lowell has represented high-profile clients in other scandals. Sullivan moved to separate Lowell from the current lien fight and said the two sides still have a good relationship. Lowell did not return requests for comment either.
Donor help, Sullivan suggested, dried up after Joe Biden left the Oval Office. That money problem sits beside Biden’s wider attempt to reset his public brand, including a wide-ranging Carlson interview that revisited old controversies.
The same stretch of image management has included crypto sideshows that left ordinary buyers holding losses, from the rapid surge and collapse of his $LAPTOP meme coin to later fallout over who got hurt.
Investors who piled in watched value vanish fast, a pattern detailed again when the $LAPTOP coin collapse sparked public anger and blame-shifting.
At the core is a simple priority fight. Biden won a sizable default judgment. His former firm wants that cash applied to unpaid bills from years of legal work. His current lawyer wants the lien removed so the award is not eaten before newer fees and Biden’s own claim on the money.
Sullivan stressed the lien is not Lowell’s personal claim.
"It’s not Abbe Lowell’s lien. Abbe hasn’t been there for a year and a half. We have a great relationship with Abbe,"
Byrne, for his part, never put on a defense in the defamation case and is now testing the judgment on appeal with a $2.1 million bond already posted. If the award stands, the bond is meant to show the money will be there. The lien fight decides who stands first in line.
Biden’s camp says the firm gambled on nonpayment and on a defense fund that never arrived. The firm’s filings say Biden wrecked evidence and offered bad excuses while millions in fees sat unpaid. A federal judge now has to sort which account controls the $1.7 million.
Public memory of Biden’s legal and business drama remains raw, including the meme-coin wipeout that left most buyers underwater while other players walked away ahead. The courtroom fight is narrower: a judgment, a lien, and a claim of poverty.
Taxpayers and voters spent years watching influence, unpaid tabs, and shifting stories trail the Biden family brand. A man who says he owns no car and no phone is in court to protect a multimillion-dollar award from the lawyers who kept him out of deeper trouble, and that is the accountability test that remains.
