Hunter Biden is struggling to make money and is now requesting to drop a lawsuit he filed in 2023 on account of his lack of funds.
In a court filing on Wednesday, Biden outlined his precarious financial situation exacerbated by the recent Pacific Palisades fire and a sudden inability to sell his paintings and books.
“Since late 2023 and through today, my income has decreased significantly,” Biden said in the filing. He said his two main sources of income, selling his paintings and copies of his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” have dried up in recent months.
“In the 2 to 3 years prior to December 2023, I sold 27 pieces for art at an average price of $54,481.48, but since then I have only sold 1 piece of art for $36,000. Similarly, for my book sales, in the six month period before the statements (April 1, 2023 through September 30, 2023), based on the September 30, 2023 statement, 3,161 copies of my book were sold, but in the six months after the statements, only approximately 1,100 books were sold,” the filing says.
“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,” Biden said.
In 2023, Biden filed a lawsuit against former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler and the company he founded, Marco Polo. Biden accused Ziegler of violating both state and federal law in accessing the contents of Biden’s now-infamous laptop, abandoned at a Delaware computer store in 2019.
Biden requested that a federal judge drop the lawsuit so he can focus his restricted resources elsewhere.
“Ultimately, this dismissal is necessary so I can focus my time and resources dealing with my relocation, the damage I and my family have incurred due to the Pacific Palisades fires, and paying for my family’s living expenses as opposed to this litigation,” Biden wrote.
Critics have raised doubts about the nature of Biden’s art sales for years. The amateur artist routinely brought in large sums of money for art pieces from anonymous buyers. In 2021, The Wall Street Journal editorial board called on then-President Joe Biden, Hunter’s father, to explain the nature of his son’s art business in the interest of transparency.
