Fox News caved on Tuesday and agreed to take down a special from its streaming platform about the legal woes of Hunter Biden, following threats from his attorneys.
The program “The Trial of Hunter Biden” was pulled from Fox Nation the network confirmed to Deadline in a statement.
“This program was produced in and has been available since 2022,” a company representative said.
“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 statement concluded.
“The Trial of Hunter Biden” was gone from Fox Nation’s catalog by Wednesday morning.
Fox rips "The Trial of Hunter Biden" off their streaming service The show’s removal came after Biden’s lawyers demanded
Fox immediately remove or face lawsuit —
🎥🍿🍿🍿 pic.twitter.com/lAIaIdHIrI
— April Color (@ColorApril) May 1, 2024
The series teased a “riveting look at the unresolved legal situation of President Joe Biden's son, Hunter.”
The program featured a “mock trial” in which Hunter Biden was a criminal defendant.
Lawyers for the son of President Joe Biden announced on Monday that they intended to imminently sue the network for alleged defamation.
The argument made by the attorneys was that Fox’s airing of blurred photos of nude Hunter Biden that have been circulating online for years equated to the breaking of “revenge porn” laws.
CNN obtained a letter Hunter Biden’s legal team sent to Fox News that threatened legal action.
“FOX knows that these private and confidential images were hacked, stolen, and/or manipulated digital material,” the letter stated.
CNN reported a lawsuit targeting Fox News would be part of Hunter Biden’s “strategy to publicly fight back against conservative media.”
Fox News had initially defended its coverage of the president’s son as protected speech.
The network said in a statement obtained by Deadline, “Hunter Biden’s lawyers have belatedly chosen to publicly attack Fox News’ constitutionally protected coverage regarding their client.
“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 U.S. Attorney’s Offices in California and Delaware, and has admitted to multiple incidents of wrongdoing.”
Hunter Biden’s legal team had also demanded Fox News retract reporting about a former FBI asset who claimed he had firsthand knowledge of alleged Biden family corruption.
Alexander Smirnov alleged he knew about corruption involving the Bidens and their business dealings in Ukraine, but he was charged with making false statements by the Justice Department earlier this year.
Smirnov has maintained he was being truthful and pleaded not guilty after he was indicted in February.
