Leaving aside for the moment that truth is an absolute defense to slander, what part of his character is left to be damaged?
/No damage, no award (beyond, perhaps, a penny). Hunter Biden is suing Fox for defamation of character.
Hunter’s illegitimate and unacknowledged daughter, 3-year-old navy Jones Roberts was unavailable for comment
Let Hunter tell the story, in his own words, of his 2018 stay at LA’s Chateau Marmont:
I’d reach for rocks I’d left on a bedside table and then find, to my horror, that they’d been blown all over the room—somebody left a door or a window open. I’d get down on my hands and knees to scan the floor and comb through the rug with my fingers. Half the time I had no idea what I was picking up: Is this a flake of Parmasean from the cheese platter we ordered last night? Or crack?
It didn’t matter: I smoked it. If it was crack, great. If it wasn’t, I’d take a hit, exhale, and exclaim: “Shit, that’s not it—that’s the fucking cheese!”
Eventually Biden left the Chateau to bounce around hotels and AirBnBs, trolling around LA between midnight and sunrise. He built a reputation, and hanger-ons started to roll through his luxury hotel rooms:
An ant trail of dealers and their sidekicks rolled in and out, day and night. They pulled up in late-series Mercedes-Benzes, decked out in oversized Raiders or Lakers jerseys and flashing fake Rolexes. Their stripper girlfriends invited their girlfriends, who invited their boyfriends.
When they finished, two or three days later, they’d walk out with the hotel’s monogrammed towels and throw pillows and comforter and ashtrays.
Biden was left scrounging for friendship from strangers, but they too ended up spending his money or just stealing it:
Once in a great while, some tender, desperate soul would float into the room who still seemed to possess a trace of kindness or concern. I’d wake up and find all my clothes folded and put back in the chest of drawers. I’d think, “Wow, she is really sweet.” Then I’d find out she folded my clothes after through all my pockets, taking everything and anything she could find. Others did the same thing with my bags or my car. Just cleaned them out.
I lost count of the stolen wallets and credit cards. Charges rolled in: Gucci loafers, an $800 sport coat, Rimowa luggage.
And here’s what the federal government says about Hunter’s character:
The 56-page charge sheet accuses him of evading $1.4m in taxes from 2016-19 and funding an "extravagant lifestyle".
Much of the recovering crack cocaine addict's alleged illicit activities occurred while his father was US vice-president under Barack Obama.
But the current US president is not accused of wrongdoing, or even mentioned in the latest indictment.
The Yale-educated lawyer faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted. Hunter Biden was separately hit with a federal indictment on gun charges in September.
How Hunter Biden earned millions of dollars
The indictment outlines how Hunter Biden reaped a "substantial income" amounting to more than $7m between 2016-20.
The payments were mostly made to business accounts he had created for his company, Owasco, PC, and were also allegedly funnelled through a company called Skaneateles, in which he owned a 75% stake.
Chinese energy: For two years, beginning in late autumn of 2015, Hunter Biden was in a business relationship with CEFC China Energy, a Chinese energy conglomerate. In 2017, he was promised $1m stemming from a deal with a CEFC associate, State Energy HK, a Hong Kong business. Hunter Biden went on to do business with a Chinese equity fund.
Burisma: The president's son began working for Ukrainian private energy company Burisma Holdings Limited in April 2014, with a starting annual salary of $1m. In March 2017, his salary was reduced to around $500,000 per year. The charging document lists payments of $1,002,016 in 2016, $630,556 in 2017, $491,939 in 2018, and $160,207 in 2019. Hunter Biden had previously told the BBC he was hired to serve on the company's board because Burisma had seen his name "as gold".
Romanian businessperson: In autumn of 2015, Mr Biden "entered into an oral agreement" to help an unnamed "Romanian businessperson… contest bribery charges he was facing in his home country". For his work between November 2015 to May 2017, he and two other business associates split a payment of over $3.1m "roughly" between the three of them.
How Hunter Biden allegedly spent the money
The indictment says the president's son allegedly spent his money on "drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes".
His spending amounted to about $1m in 2016, $1.4m in 2017, $1.8m in 2018, and $600,000 in 2019, according to the charge sheet.
Between 2016-19, he withdrew $1.6m from cash machines alone.
In the same period he spent over $683,000 on "payments - various women", another $188,960 on "adult entertainment", $397,530 on clothing and accessories, and $237,496 on health, beauty and pharmacy, prosecutors say.
They list many of the luxury hotels Hunter Biden stayed in during the years that he chose to not maintain a residence. Most were in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington DC.
He used the hotels "for constant partying", prosecutors say.
Other funds went to hire a Lamborghini, which he used after moving to the West Coast while waiting for his Porsche to be shipped to him.
Payments included $1,500 to an exotic dancer at a strip club, $11,500 for an "escort" who was paid "to spend two nights with him", $27,316 in payments to an online pornography website and $10,000 "to purchase a membership in a sex club".
