Ashley Biden, the daughter of former President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden, threatened to sue former Democratic National Committee (DNC) fundraiser Lindy Li over Li’s public claim that there had been a cover-up of her father’s cognitive and political decline during the 2024 presidential election, according to Li, who says the threat was posted to Instagram in February of last year and taken down a day later.
No lawsuit was ever filed. Li, who left the Democratic Party over what she calls unheeded warning signs about Biden’s decline, says the threat was one of many attempts to intimidate her after she went public with her account of the fear, disorganization and secrecy surrounding Biden’s decision to seek a second term despite concerns about his age. “They wanted to scare me. That was the goal,” Li told Fox News Digital.
What the Instagram Post Said
Li recounts the episode in her book “Unburdened.” She writes: “Ashley later threatened to sue me for saying there was a cover-up of her father’s decline, lashing out on Instagram with a bravado so crude it bordered on parody: ‘This woman is a bonavide [sic] liar. Karma is a real bad b—-, Lindy,'”
The post continued: “‘I don’t know you but can’t wait to meet your a– in court. Ready for a lawsuit? Let’s go! I won’t put up with this BS anymore.'”
Li showed Fox News Digital screenshots of the post, along with photographs of herself with Ashley Biden, and said the two had met on a number of occasions — a direct contradiction of the post’s assertion that its author did not know who she was. “Doesn’t even pass the smell test,” Li said.
From White House Regular to Outsider
Li raised money for both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and worked closely with top donors and senior figures inside the party. That standing, she says, disappeared the moment she broke ranks. “When I went on Shannon’s show to say Biden needs to step aside — and three hours later he did — my access immediately vanished and all my fears about speaking up were justified,” she said.
“I knew that if I spoke up my life would be ruined and frankly, in that respect, it was,” Li said. “I was never invited to the White House again, never spoke to Biden again. Prior to that, I was invited to the White House every two to three weeks. There was always some event.”
Why the Lawsuit Never Came
Li said her own attorneys played down the likelihood that a suit would ever be brought, telling her that the Bidens would probably prefer to avoid a disclosure fight capable of pulling still more detail about the former president’s decline into public view. The post itself, she said, disappeared after roughly a day.
For Li, the fact that none of the threats she says she received ever turned into a filing is itself a point in her favor. “Truth, after all, remains the strongest shield against defamation,” she said. “Everything I said was true so… I’m still waiting to hear exactly what I said that is legally actionable,” Li said.