After Hunter Biden”s defamation lawsuit against Overstock’s former CEO failed to get off the ground at trial this summer in “three-ring circus” fashion, Biden has been left with no choice but to seek an arrest warrant that will secure Patrick Byrne’s presence in court, according to a weekend filing from the plaintiff.

Biden’s lawyer Dick Harpootlian, the former South Carolina state senator who represented convicted double-murderer Alex Murdaugh, in a Saturday motion urged U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson, a Ronald Reagan appointee going back to 1985, to follow through on a prior arrest warrant threat. Harpootlian argued that Twitter posts about the court’s prior orders have been ignored.

President Joe Biden’s son filed the defamation lawsuit in late 2023, claiming that Byrne defamed him when he falsely accused him of committing “despicable and treasonous crimes” involving bribery and Iran. Biden alleged that Byrne was “told that his allegations are false” and that a retraction demand was made, but the named defendant “doubled down” in subsequent post linking the plaintiff and his “purported crimes” to the “horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel.”

An attempt to take the case to trial went off the rails in July when Byrne suddenly fired his lawyers, but the judge, instead of issuing a default judgment in Biden’s favor, rescheduled proceedings for Oct. 14. In the plaintiff’s view, however, there is little reason to believe Byrne will comply with court orders or appear for that trial, so he should be arrested — since the threats of monetary sanctions and contempt appear not to be enough to move him.

“Notice cannot be given to Defendant because he is unrepresented by counsel and has failed to provide his contact information to Plaintiff as ordered by the Court and as required by the Court’s Local Civil Rules and has been non-responsive to Court orders,” the motion began. “On August 29, 2025, the Court issued the Order to Show Cause Why Defendant Patrick Byrne Should not be Sanctioned or Held in Civil Contempt, in which the Court stated, ‘[b]efore issuing a formal finding of contempt and imposing further sanctions, the Court issues this order to show cause so that Defendant may have notice and an opportunity to be heard on the matter.'”

“Defendant has ignored the Order as he has with the Court’s other prior orders,” the motion continued. “The Court has previously indicated that it is satisfied Defendant has received notice of its orders. Additionally, Plaintiff has undertaken extensive efforts to provide notice of the Order through Defendant’s X (formerly Twitter) account, which Defendant publicly stated he uses daily and is the best way to contact him and which Defendant authenticated at his deposition. Other federal courts in California have held such action is sufficient to effect service of process of overseas defendants.”

Because Byrne “refuses to obey the orders of the Court” and is a billionaire, hitting him with “a monetary sanction or default judgment” would not be enough to move him, the motion stated. As a result, an arrest by the U.S. Marshals Service is the “appropriate” course of action should Byrne also ignore a bench warrant, Biden insisted.

“Entry of a monetary sanction or default judgment would not obviate the need for the Court to use its coercive powers to enforce its orders in this case because Defendant is a billionaire who ignores court orders while concealing his assets overseas or in cryptocurrencies specifically created to evade governmental authority and who flouts this Court’s authority,” the filing said, seeking the warrant. “The appropriate sanction is to force Defendant to appear and defend (or confess) the case on the merits.”

“If Defendant does not arrange to appear in the courtroom to surrender to the warrant, Plaintiff requests the U.S. Marshals Service take and hold him in custody until he can be presented in person before the Court,” the motion concluded. “When Defendant appears before the Court, the Court would instruct Defendant how he may purge the contempt and be released. While that is a matter for the Court’s discretion, Plaintiff has suggested requiring Defendant to bond the case would be an appropriate method of purging his contempt.”

Byrne resigned from Overstock in 2019 after his self-described “trysts” with Maria Butina were revealed. Butina was prosecuted and convicted in 2018 for conspiring to act in the U.S. as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia, in a case that was unrelated to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe but which nonetheless stemmed from Butina’s activities — prior to and during Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign — to leverage relationships in Republican circles, including high-ranking National Rifle Association contacts.

On Dec. 18, 2020, more than a month after Trump’s election loss, Byrne attended a heated hourslong Oval Office meeting involving the president, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, and “Kraken” attorney Sidney Powell. Bandied about at the meeting were ideas to seize Dominion voting machines and even to appoint Powell as special counsel to investigate her never-proven stolen election claims.

In more recent months, Byrne’s move to Dubai “out of fear for his life” amid claims of a Venezuelan “bounty on his head” had put up a roadblock to Biden’s attempt to put him under oath for a deposition. Byrne apparently explained his move to Dubai was due to the belief that American law enforcement can’t “provide me with the safety I need for my personal safety,” adding that he had no plans to return to the United States at least until after the 2024 presidential election.