An attorney for Hunter Biden sent a cease-and-desist letter to former President Donald Trump demanding that he stop making “defamatory” statements, saying they could spur violence against the Biden family.
“I am sending you this letter to make a demand that your client, former President Donald Trump, cease and desist from making public statements about my client which are both defamatory and likely to incite Mr. Trump’s followers to take actions against Mr. Biden and which could lead to his or his family’s injury,” Hunter Biden attorney Abbe Lowell said in the Thursday letter.
The letter said Mr. Trump has invoked Hunter Biden’s name on a “near daily basis” in the last few months, citing a half-dozen examples of Mr. Trump’s posts on Truth Social and saying the former president has “doubled down on his dangerous rhetoric” as he battles his own legal problems.
“This is not a false alarm,” Mr. Lowell wrote in the letter to four Trump attorneys first reported by ABC News.
He referenced the attack last year on Paul Pelosi, husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at their San Francisco home, and the arrest last month of a man found with weapons in his van near former President Barack Obama’s home in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington.
“We are just one such social media message away from another incident, and you should make clear to Mr. Trump — if you have not done so already — that Mr. Trump’s words have caused harm in the past and threaten to do so again if he does not stop,” Mr. Lowell said.
Abbe Lowell sent cease & desist letter to the attorneys of @realDonaldTrump on behalf of Hunter Biden
— Jane (@PlaintanJane) July 14, 2023
“This is not a false alarm. We are just one such social media message away from another incident, and you should make clear to Mr. Trump — if you have not done so already…” pic.twitter.com/EiD0MVKmLW
Hunter Biden, 53, is a private citizen, but his plea deal last month on tax charges; treatment of his out-of-wedlock daughter; frequent White House appearances, and business dealings with China and Ukraine have made him a 2024 campaign issue as his father seeks reelection.
Mr. Biden is the odds-on favorite to win the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, while Mr. Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nod.
On July 10, Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the bag of cocaine discovered at the White House “was for use by Hunter, & probably Crooked Joe, in order to give this total disaster of a President a little life and energy.”
The Secret Service closed its investigation Thursday without filing charges, saying there was no surveillance video and “insufficient DNA” to single out any suspect.
“You know, if Mr. Trump does not, that Mr. Biden has neither committed nor been accused of the charges that your client is claiming … and that the Biden family was not at the White House (let alone in the vestibule) in the period when the cocaine was found,” Mr. Lowell said.
Mr. Trump has not commented publicly on the letter.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.