Call it pleading the thrift.
Hunter Biden claimed under oath earlier this year that he's so broke he doesn't even own a car or a cellphone, and said his family is too strapped for cash to help him pay off millions in unpaid legal bills.
The former first son painted a bleak picture of his own and of Biden family finances during a Feb. 9 deposition in his legal battle with powerhouse law firm Winston Taylor, which sued Biden in June 2025 for allegedly stiffing the firm out of $17 million accrued from representing Biden in federal criminal cases, congressional investigations, and defamation lawsuits Biden brought against his enemies.
"I don't have any assets. I don't own a car. I don't own a phone," Biden said in the deposition, according to a transcript released this week.
"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," Biden testified. "So that's it. And I don't even have any other assets at all, stocks, bonds, anything like that, savings accounts."
Biden, who recently landed a job at a luxury Los Angeles addiction treatment center, also claimed his father and other relatives are unable to bail him out.
"My family doesn't have any money, and it's not their debt anyway," he said.
It’s a stunning fall from grace for a Yale-trained attorney who made millions of dollars a year trading off the Biden name when his father was vice president. Biden famously blew the money on a raging crack cocaine and alcohol addiction, luxury hotels for days-long sex and drug sessions with prostitutes, and jewels for his then-girlfriend, the widow of his late brother Beau.
Biden’s deposition also raises questions about the status of his extended family’s finances.
Former president Joe Biden reportedly received a $10 million advance for a book scheduled for release in November, and former first lady Jill Biden likely got a hefty book advance from her memoir, published in June. The book peaked at #1 on the New York Times best-seller list, though juiced by "bulk" sales.
But Biden family observers say the book advance—whittled away by taxes and agents’ fees and paid out in chunks over several years—may be the last big check the Bidens will ever see. Joe Biden, who has stage IV cancer, has struggled to pull in large speaking fees—usually a font of easy money for ex-presidents—and has also struggled to raise money for his presidential library. The Joe Biden gravy train—which provided income opportunities for Hunter Biden and his uncle and aunt—has dried up. The larger brood of Biden grandchildren have racked up enormous tuition bills at private boarding schools and the University of Pennsylvania.
Hunter Biden's current lawyers released his deposition and that of his former attorney, Abbe Lowell, as part of a rebuttal to Winston Taylor’s request that Biden turn over emails and encrypted text messages as part of the discovery portion of the lawsuit. Biden has fought the discovery request, saying he has turned over all relevant documents related to the lawsuit.
While Biden does not dispute that Winston Taylor is still owed millions of dollars on paper, he claims the firm knew when it agreed to represent him in late 2022 that he would be unable to pay all of his bills.
Biden says that Lowell, the D.C. superlawyer who left Winston & Strawn (as Winston Taylor was formerly known) last year, told him not to worry about paying his legal bills.
According to Biden, Lowell, who represents multiple Democratic figures in legal battles with the Trump administration, approached him after the 2022 midterm elections about providing legal representation.
"Abbe had reached out to one of my other lawyers offering his help," said Biden. And, according to Biden, Lowell downplayed concerns about paying legal bills.
"He absolutely at the beginning said, 'Don't worry, we'll work it out, we'll work something out,'" Biden testified.
And according to Biden, it was Lowell’s idea to sue IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, both of whom revealed information that led to Biden’s federal indictment on tax evasion charges. Lowell also proposed litigation against former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler (no relation to Joseph Ziegler), both of whom led the charge to publish information from Biden’s abandoned laptop.
"It was all part of a whole strategy that was instituted by Abbe, Winston," said Biden.
Lowell, who was also deposed for the lawsuit, said he tried to help the younger Biden raise money through third-party donors and within the "Democratic ecosystem" to cover his legal bills. Lowell said he had discussions with Bob Bauer, a former Obama White House counsel and a personal attorney to Joe Biden, about raising money for Hunter Biden and about setting up a legal defense fund and a 501(c)(4) political nonprofit to help cover the costs.
Lowell said in the deposition that his friends were confused and "bewildered" why Winston Taylor would sue Biden for money they knew he didn’t have. Asked if he thought his former firm was suing in order to get in good standing with the Trump administration, Lowell replied that "I don't have any evidence, but I can say that it is something that people have raised the question about."
In addition to scoring the job with the rehab firm, Biden also won a $1.7 million default defamation judgment earlier this month from former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne regarding accusations Byrne made about Biden and Iran. Winston Taylor immediately sought to place a lien on the judgment, which Byrne, who is believed to be overseas, may never pay anyway.
Biden is also facing legal action from former stripper Lunden Roberts, the mother of his daughter Navy, who claims Biden is a deadbeat dad and is not meeting his child support obligations.
Biden’s lawyers have described him as "impecunious" and living abroad, though Biden’s regular appearances in various U.S. podcast studios in recent months suggest he is living in the United States. On Thursday he appeared on the Barstool Sports Macrodosing podcast, which was taped at its Chicago studios.