Although Fox News has removed the miniseries from its streaming platform, attorneys for Hunter Biden claim that the conservative media network is continuing to mislead its viewers.
Fox News has removed a six-part miniseries about Hunter Biden from its streaming platform following threats of litigation.
According to CNN, the removal constitutes an unusually swift response from Fox News—a conservative network that had, until earlier this week, defended the miniseries and its content.
“The program was produced in and has been available since 2022,” a Fox spokesperson said in a statement. “We are reviewing the concerns that have just been raised and—out of an abundance of caution in the interim—have taken it down.”
The series, which was titled “The Trial of Hunter Biden,” featured sexually explicit images of Biden, as well as a “mock trial” discussing his overseas business dealings.
National Public Radio notes that Alexander Smirnov, the source of some of the show’s allegations—especially those relating to Biden’s funneling of millions of dollars in bribes to the White House—has since been charged with lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Earlier this year, for instance, Smirnov purportedly admitted that “officials associated with Russian intelligence” were involved in fabricating and circulating claims that Biden—and his father, President Joe Biden—received kickbacks and other financial incentives from the Ukrainian government.
On Monday, attorneys for Hunter Biden announced that they had been pressuring Fox to remove the series, saying that they would take legal action if they did not remove or otherwise censor the program’s more controversial elements.
Despite Fox’s decision to remove the miniseries from its streaming services, the company has said that “The Trial of Hunter Biden” was not made in bad faith.
“Hunter Biden’s lawyers have belatedly chosen to publicly attack Fox News’ constitutionally protected coverage regarding their client,” Fox said in a statement. “Mr. Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of investigations by both the Department of Justice and Congress, has been indicted by two different US Attorney’s Offices in California and Delaware, and has admitted to multiple incidents of wrongdoing.”
“Consistent with the First Amendment,” the statement said, “Fox News has accurately covered these highly publicized events as well as the subsequent indictment of an FBI informant who was the source of certain claims made about Mr. Biden.”
Biden’s legal team issued its own updated statement on Tuesday, accusing Fox of continuing to mislead the public even as it seeks to minimize its own liability.
“In its statement, Fox falsely states that Hunter Biden was the subject of an investigation by Congress, which mischaracterizes the plain facts of his litigation, and intentionally avoids telling their audience that their attacks on Hunter were ‘based’ on an informant who lied,” Biden’s attorneys said. “We demand that Fox immediately retract and correct today’s statement, which is the latest example of its relentless attack on Hunter Biden in complete disregard for the truth.”
Sources
Fox News pulls down series as Hunter Biden threatens lawsuit
Fox News takes down Hunter Biden ‘mock trial’ miniseries after lawsuit threat
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