Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, was awarded more than one million dollars in damages on Friday as part of a defamation lawsuit against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.

Hunter accused Byrne of lying in an interview when he said the younger Biden had sought a bribe from Iran’s government in the fall of 2021.

Byrne, a close Trump ally and election denier, said in the interview that Hunter Biden sought an $800 million bribe from Iran in exchange for persuading his father to “unfreeze” $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets and ensure that the US would “go easy” on Iran during “nuclear talks,” according to Hunter’s lawsuit.

Hunter’s lawsuit also said Byrne repeated the lie on social media one day after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel which implied “that Plaintiff’s allegedly criminal and corrupt actions had contributed to the terrorist attacks by Hamas,” Hunter’s lawyers wrote.

Byrne told the court that he believed the statements to be true because he had been told about the alleged bribery scheme by an Iranian government official. But U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson of the Central District of California wrote in his ruling that the court found “ample evidence” to show that Byrne “knew the story to be false, and much of the narrative describing the covert meeting with an Iranian government official was fabricated,” according to the Guardian.

“The evidence is clear and convincing that defendant has engaged in intentional misrepresentation with conscious disregard towards plaintiff’s rights,” Wilson wrote. The judge added that Byrne’s “defamation went far beyond mere negligence.”

Wilson awarded Hunter $1 in nominal damages and $1.7 million in punitive damages. He also ordered Byrne to pay nearly $35,000 in previously imposed court sanctions.

“This is a complete vindication for Hunter Biden against the false statements made about him by Patrick Byrne,” Bryan Sullivan, Hunter’s attorney, said in a statement. “As found by the court, Byrne had no basis to say that Hunter had any involvement with Iran whatsoever.”