Hunter Biden and his legal team sure do seem to run hot and cold: File pleadings — then quickly withdraw them; file lawsuits — then dismiss them. Let’s review what we’ve seen from Hunter’s legal team in just the past few weeks:
- Just days after his June conviction in Delaware on federal firearms charges, Biden voluntarily dismissed his lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani for allegedly improperly accessing and disseminating digital data from the infamous “laptop from hell.”
- The Monday following his conviction, Biden’s lawyers filed a motion for new trial and then swiftly requested its removal from the docket, only to refile it again the following week.
- In that motion for new trial, Biden’s legal team insisted that the trial court did not have proper jurisdiction over the case at the time of the trial as the Third Circuit Court of Appeals had not formally issued a mandate returning the case to the trial court after declining to take up his interlocutory appeals.
- After getting pantsed by the prosecution’s response to that novel theory (which pointed out that the Third Circuit’s certified orders included the notation that they were “Issued in Lieu of Mandate,” Biden’s chastened legal team then withdrew the motion for new trial.
- In the meantime, Biden filed suit against Fox News Channel over a 2022 miniseries streamed by the network, asserting that the network had targeted Biden “in an effort to harass, annoy, alarm, and humiliate him, and tarnish his reputation.”
Fancy That: Hunter Biden Dismisses Laptop Lawsuit Against Rudy Giuliani
Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Hunter Biden Legal Team Files Motion for New Trial Then Abruptly Rescinds
Bold Strategy, Cotton: Hunter Biden’s Legal Team Requests New Trial in Gun Case…on Interesting Grounds
Govt. Responds to Hunter Biden’s ‘Laughable Tale’ in Support of His Motion for New Trial…and Ouch!
Chastened: Biden Legal Team Withdraws Motion for New Trial in Light of Spanking From Special Counsel
Can’t Make This Stuff Up: Hunter Biden Is Suing Fox Over ‘Revenge Porn’
Eyebrows were raised at the time the suit was filed, given the nature of the allegations and the nature of Hunter Biden’s very public escapades. As I noted:
Here’s where an observant reader might pause and wonder at what it would take to “tarnish” the reputation of a known crack addict who had an affair with his brother’s widow (getting her hooked on crack in the process), then her sister, then a stripper with whom he fathered a child he refused to acknowledge until a court made him, and attempted to write off personal expenses like a sex club membership as business expenses?
Well, I hope you’re properly harnessed in so as to avoid whiplash because just three short weeks after filing that suit against Fox, Biden’s legal team has now voluntarily dismissed it.
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) July 22, 2024
Now, one thing to note is that the case was dismissed “without prejudice,” meaning that it could be refiled. There’s no indication at this point as to the reason for the dismissal, but given the topsy-turvy nature of things in Biden World over the past few weeks, one can only imagine what sorts of conversations are being had regarding legal maneuvers and implications for the (for now) First Son.
