Hunter Biden is one step closer to winning a defamation lawsuit by default against Overstock's former CEO after a federal judge slapped Patrick Byrne with monetary sanctions to cover Biden attorneys' travel costs and ordered the plaintiff to file a motion that could end the case.

Biden attorney Bryan Sullivan confirmed to Law&Crime that U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson's sanctions order on Monday amounts to recompense to the plaintiff's legal team for having to show up for trial at the end of July, only to see the California federal proceeding derailed in " three-ring circus " fashion after Byrne suddenly fired his lawyers and failed to convince the judge to grant attorney Stefanie Lambert pro hac vice permission to represent him instead.

In a sanctions motion from late August, Biden's

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