Hunter Biden told lawyers in a sworn deposition that he owns nothing, no car, no phone, no savings, and that his family has no money, even as a prominent law firm pursues him for $17 million in legal bills he has not paid.
The deposition transcript, released in recent days by Biden's new legal team, captures the son of former President Joe Biden painting a picture of total financial collapse. Winston Taylor, the law firm that represented him through criminal prosecutions, congressional investigations, and defamation suits, says Biden ran up $17 million in fees and now refuses to pay. Biden's counter-argument: the firm knew he was broke when it signed him on, and the two sides had an understanding they would "work something out," Fox News Digital reported.
Neither Hunter Biden nor former President Biden responded to requests for comment from Fox News Digital on Friday.
Biden's own words in the February deposition leave little room for ambiguity about the financial picture he wants the court to accept. Asked about his assets, he offered a sweeping denial.
"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: "I don't have any assets. I don't own a car. I don't own a phone."
That testimony comes from a man who once earned a seven-figure salary sitting on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company. Biden joined that board in April 2014 while his father was vice president and overseeing U.S.-Ukraine relations, a fact that drew years of bipartisan scrutiny. In a podcast interview this week on "Armchair Expert," Biden conceded the obvious: he should never have taken the seat.
"Here's the validity. The validity is that I should never have taken the board seat with Burisma. That's the validity of it."
He added that joining the board "obviously turns out to be a mistake," though he insisted neither he nor his father did anything wrong. It was not the first time he made that concession, he said the same thing in December 2025.
Defending his professional credentials while admitting the position was a mistake does not resolve the central contradiction. He earned a seven-figure salary from a foreign energy company while his father ran U.S. policy toward that country, and now he tells a court he has nothing to show for any of it.
The law firm at the center of the dispute, Winston Taylor, has a history of representing leading Democrats. It took on Biden's sprawling legal portfolio, criminal cases, Hill investigations, defamation suits, and now says the bill stands at $17 million. Biden's position is that the firm understood from the start that payment would be uncertain.
Winston Taylor has not simply filed the claim and waited. The firm has sought to place a lien on a $1.7 million defamation judgment Biden won in July against Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock. That judgment, however, may be difficult to collect. Byrne is believed to be overseas, and there is no indication in court filings that any portion has been paid.
So the firm that defended Biden through some of the highest-profile legal fights in recent political history is now locked in its own fight to recover anything at all. And the one asset it has identified, a court judgment against a man who may be out of the country, is itself an open question.
Biden's broader financial trajectory makes the claim of total insolvency difficult to square. He spent years earning large sums. Fox News Digital noted that Biden has spoken publicly about his personal struggles, including addiction, and has reportedly spent heavily on crack cocaine, alcohol, luxury hotels, prostitutes, and expensive jewelry over the years. Where all that money went is a question the deposition raises but does not fully answer.
Hunter Biden's insolvency claim sits alongside reporting about his father's post-presidential money troubles. The Wall Street Journal reported in September 2025 that former President Biden has had far more difficulty cashing in on his time in office than his predecessors. A source familiar with his finances told Fox News Digital that the former president accrued roughly $800,000 in personal debt upon leaving the White House.
Biden still owns a Delaware home valued at $2.7 million, but he faces increased property taxes on the property now that he is out of office. He has struggled to book the paid speaking engagements that typically provide a financial cushion for former presidents.
He does pull in more than $400,000 a year in government pensions from his decades in Congress and his time in the White House, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. That is a comfortable income by any ordinary standard, but it does not cover $800,000 in debt, a $2.7 million home, and whatever portion of his son's $17 million legal tab he might be expected to help shoulder.
A federal judge recently rejected the former president's effort to block release of recorded conversations with his biographer, adding another legal front to an already complicated post-presidency. And former allies have not been shy about their frustrations with the Biden family's public standing, a former Democratic fundraiser publicly criticized the former president's memoir launch, accusing the party of having spent years propping up a weak candidate.
Winston Taylor also tried a different route to help Biden pay: the firm attempted to connect him with donors in the Democratic fundraising ecosystem who might cover some of the bills. That effort, too, appears to have come up short.
The firm's decision to take on Biden as a client now looks like a spectacular miscalculation. It wagered that a man with a famous last name, deep political connections, and a history of high-dollar income would eventually settle his account. Instead, it got a client who tells a court under oath that his only possessions of potential value are paintings he made himself.
Biden's legal exposure has been well documented, and the $17 million figure underscores just how sprawling his troubles became. Criminal prosecutions, congressional probes, defamation litigation, each front required lawyers, and lawyers require payment. The question now is whether a court will accept Biden's claim that he simply cannot pay, or whether the firm can find assets Biden says do not exist.
Fox News Digital reached representatives for both Hunter Biden and former President Biden on Friday. Neither responded.
A man who sat on a foreign energy board for a seven-figure salary, spent lavishly for years, and benefited from a presidential pardon now wants a court to believe he has nothing. The taxpayers who funded his father's career, and his father's $400,000 annual pension, can draw their own conclusions.
