Hunter Biden told lawyers in a sworn deposition that he owns nothing, no car, no phone, no savings, while his former law firm pursues him for $17 million in unpaid legal fees.
The deposition transcript, released in recent days by Biden's new legal team, captures the son of former President Joe Biden describing a financial picture that would be unrecognizable to anyone who followed his years of overseas board fees, art sales, and luxury spending. Under questioning from attorneys at Winston Taylor, the firm that represented him through criminal prosecutions, congressional investigations, and defamation litigation, Biden painted himself as a man with nothing left to take.
Winston Taylor disagrees. The firm is suing Biden for $17 million it says he owes for legal work, and it has already moved to place a lien on the one asset Biden has recently acquired: a $1.7 million defamation judgment a judge awarded him against former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. Collecting even that may prove difficult, Byrne is believed to be overseas.
Biden sat for the deposition in February. His own words, preserved in the transcript, leave little room for ambiguity about the picture he wanted to present.
"My family doesn't have any money, and it's not their debt anyway. I don't own anything of any value other than, and I don't know the value of it, my paintings which I painted myself. So that's it. And I don't even have any other assets at all, stocks, bonds, anything like that, savings accounts."
He went further in a separate exchange:
"I don't have any assets. I don't own a car. I don't own a phone."
Biden's argument against Winston Taylor rests on a claim that the firm knew he could not pay when it agreed to represent him and that the two sides had agreed to "work something out." Winston Taylor rejects that characterization and is pressing the lawsuit for the full amount.
The firm had also attempted to connect Biden with donors in the Democratic fundraising ecosystem to help cover his legal bills, an effort that, based on the current lawsuit, did not produce enough to close the gap.
Biden's sworn claims of total insolvency land against a biographical backdrop that makes them hard to absorb at face value. He earned a reported salary from Ukrainian energy company Burisma, sold artwork that brought in substantial sums during his father's early presidency, and published a memoir. Where that money went is no mystery to anyone who followed his legal troubles: Biden has acknowledged spending heavily on drugs, alcohol, luxury hotels, and other personal expenses over a period of years.
Whatever income streams Biden once had appear to have narrowed sharply. The New York Post reported that Biden has sold only one piece of art for $36,000 since December 2023, a steep drop from the nearly $1.5 million in art earnings he pulled in during his father's early presidency. Sales of his 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things," fell from roughly 3,200 copies over a six-month stretch in mid-2023 to just 1,100 copies in the following six months.
Biden himself has put a number on his predicament. He estimated his total debt at up to $15 million and told podcaster Shawn Ryan, "Nobody's riding to the rescue for Hunter Biden." Asked how he planned to pay it back, he said, "I have no idea."
That candor, or helplessness, stands in contrast to the years when Biden traded freely on his family name. On Tuesday, during an appearance on the "Arm Chair Expert" podcast, he conceded that he should never have taken the seat on Burisma's board, a position that drew scrutiny throughout his father's vice presidency and presidency.
It was a rare public admission, though it arrived years after the controversy had already done its political damage. Biden has more recently taken to social media to reshape the narrative around his laptop and other scandals, an effort that has not changed the underlying record.
The $1.7 million defamation award Biden won against Patrick Byrne in July would barely dent the $17 million Winston Taylor claims it is owed. But the firm has moved to place a lien on that judgment anyway, a signal of how few other assets it believes are available to collect.
Even that path is complicated. Byrne, the former Overstock CEO, is believed to be overseas, and the lien itself creates a legal tangle over who gets paid first from a judgment that may be difficult to enforce.
Winston Taylor is a firm with deep ties to the Democratic establishment, known for representing leading party figures. That it is now suing one of the most prominent Democratic family members for millions in unpaid bills underscores just how far Biden's financial position has deteriorated, and how strained those relationships have become.
Hunter Biden's financial collapse does not exist in isolation. Former President Joe Biden reportedly left office carrying roughly $800,000 in personal debt, according to a source familiar with his finances. He also faces increased property taxes on his $2.7 million Delaware home.
The Wall Street Journal reported in September 2025 that the former president has had far more trouble cashing in on his time in the White House than his predecessors, a striking detail for a man who spent more than five decades in Washington. Paid speaking engagements, the traditional post-presidential revenue stream, have been slow to materialize.
Biden does pull in more than $400,000 a year in government pensions, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. That is a comfortable income by most Americans' standards, but it does not cover $800,000 in debt, rising property costs, and a son who claims he cannot pay his own bills.
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for both Hunter Biden and the former president on Friday. Neither responded to requests for comment.
Biden's broader public rehabilitation effort, including media appearances and podcast interviews, continues alongside the legal fights. But rehabilitation tours do not pay legal bills, and Winston Taylor is not interested in apologies.
Several questions remain unanswered. The specific court handling the Winston Taylor lawsuit has not been identified in public reporting. The current status of the case, whether a trial date has been set or settlement talks are underway, is unclear. And Biden's new lawyers, who released the transcript, have not explained whether they did so voluntarily or under court order.
What is clear is the gap between the life Hunter Biden lived and the life he now describes under oath. He earned foreign board fees that drew a federal investigation. He sold paintings to anonymous buyers during his father's presidency. He received a presidential pardon from his own father. And now he sits in a deposition room telling lawyers he does not own a phone.
Taxpayers and voters watched the Biden family leverage the highest office in the country for decades. If the family coffers are truly bare, the public is entitled to ask where all of it went, and why the answer always seems to be someone else's problem.
