Hunter Biden ends legal battle with Fox News over 'Revenge Porn' allegations

Hunter Biden has dropped his lawsuit against right-wing Fox News, filed after the US broadcaster used nude images of him in a fictional drama concerning the president's son, court filings showed.

The voluntary dismissal came on Sunday, the day Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign.

"The Trial of Hunter Biden" was made up of six episodes published in 2022 on Fox Nation, the conservative broadcaster's online platform owned by the family of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

A dramatized version of a criminal trial, the series contained a warning that the proceedings were fiction, depicting Hunter Biden being prosecuted for graft -- dovetailing with real-life accusations made for years by Donald Trump supporters who point to his past business ties with Ukraine and China.

Those accusations have never led to legal action.

The younger Biden sued the platform earlier this month alleging that the use of real nude images of him as part of the series amounted to "revenge porn."

The images originated from a laptop that Hunter Biden dropped off at a computer repair shop, but which he never collected.

Its contents have been circulating ever since, and have been the subject of widespread conspiracy theories as well as embarrassing fodder for the political opposition.

"This entirely politically motivated lawsuit is devoid of merit," Fox News said in a statement at the time.

"Mr. Biden did not complain about (it) until sending a letter in late April 2024. The program was removed within days of the letter, in an abundance of caution."

Hunter Biden's lawyers did not specify why they dropped the lawsuit in their court filings.