Political Glance
A federal judge has awarded Hunter Biden $1.7 million in punitive damages in a defamation lawsuit against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, ruling that Byrne made false claims about Biden’s alleged involvement in a bribery scheme with Iran, according to reporting from The Guardian and The Hill.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson of the Central District of California issued the judgment Friday after finding that Byrne acted with “intentional misrepresentation” and “conscious disregard” for Biden’s rights. The judge also awarded Biden $1 in nominal damages and ordered Byrne to pay nearly $35,000 in court sanctions.
The lawsuit, filed by Biden in 2023, centered on claims Byrne made in interviews and online that Biden had sought an $800 million bribe from Iran while his father, former President Joe Biden, was in office. Byrne alleged that Hunter Biden offered to help persuade his father to unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets and take a softer approach during nuclear negotiations.
Biden denied the allegations, accusing Byrne of knowingly spreading false information designed to damage his reputation. The case had been scheduled for a jury trial, but Wilson entered a default judgment after Byrne failed to appear and the judge said he repeatedly disobeyed court orders and delayed proceedings.
Lawyers for the suspect accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk are expected to keep questioning the reliability of DNA testing that prosecutors said links the defendant to the suspected murder weapon when a weeklong hearing continues Wednesday.
Tensions between the Trump administration and the Smithsonian Institution have escalated after a White House report accused the National Museum of American History of promoting a "radical, activist ideology."
President Donald Trump has terminated two of the federal Election Assistance Commission's three members, eliminating the panel's ability to help local election officials prepare for the 2026 midterms.
Federal agents killed a man at a Memphis motel on Wednesday morning in a Drug Enforcement Administration operation with the Memphis Safe Task Force, the fourth officer-involved death since the anticrime initiative began in September.
A Manhattan federal court judge on Wednesday ordered the release of the more than $5m Donald Trump owes E Jean Carroll following her successful 2023 sexual abuse and defamation trial against him. Less than an hour after the judge issued his order, Trump filed paperwork indicating he was appealing the decision.
Graham Platner, the oyster farmer whose populist platform took Maine by storm, dropped his Senate bid Wednesday night as controversies over his past stacked up, leaving Democrats without a nominee to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) this fall.
