Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox
Get our free Inside Washington email
Get our free Inside Washington email
Hunter Biden has revealed his dire financial situation following a slump in book and art sales.
The former president’s son said his “dwindling financial resources” have led him to instruct attorneys to request a judge dismiss a lawsuit around the publication of contents of his laptop that was pursuing against a former Donald Trump aide. Hunter added that he can no longer afford to proceed with litigation.
Biden said that his debt was “in the millions of dollars range” and his income has “decreased significantly” since late 2023, according to documents filed in federal court in California urging district judge Hernan D. Vera to dismiss the suit against Garrett Ziegler, who published the contents of his laptop in 2020.
His income before December 2023, according to the documents, came from sales of his artwork and his memoir Beautiful Things. “In the 2 to 3 years prior to December 2023, I sold 27 pieces for art at an average price of $54,481.48,” Biden said in the filing. “But since then I have only sold 1 piece of art for $36,000.”
Biden added that his book sales plummeted from 3,161 copies in mid-2023 to 1,100 later that year.
“Given the positive feedback and reviews of my artwork and memoir, I was expecting to obtain paid speaking engagements and paid appearances, but that has not happened,” he added.
The home Biden rented in the Pacific Palisades was also damaged by the fires in January and he has had “difficulty” in finding somewhere to live.
Biden said that he will assess the other civil actions he has pending “on a case-by-case basis” because of his “limited resources.”
Ziegler worked in the White House under Trump adviser Peter Navarro as a staffer, and gained notoriety for his outspoken criticism of Biden.
Since leaving Trump’s first administration, Ziegler “devoted most of his waking time and energy to accessing, tampering with, manipulating, altering, copying and otherwise using” allegedly compromised computer and iPhone data, emails and photos, according to the original lawsuit filed in September 2023.
Ziegler published allegedly incriminating or embarrassing details about Biden via his nonprofit website Marco Polo.
Biden filed a lawsuit against Ziegler and 10 others, accusing them of illegally obtaining emails, photos, videos and recordings from his laptop and publishing them.
In addition to that lawsuit, Biden’s friend who loaned him millions of dollars, Kevin Morris, also sued Ziegler for harassment and doxing.
During Biden’s federal gun charges trial in June 2024, his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, got into a heated confrontation with Ziegler outside the courtroom.
Former President Joe Biden pardoned his son in December in a controversial move.