Hunter Biden’s escalating feud with First Lady Melania Trump is drawing sharp warnings from legal experts, with George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley cautioning that Biden’s refusal to retract his defamatory claims could prove financially ruinous.

The controversy began after Biden appeared on Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan, where he alleged that Melania first met President Donald J. Trump through convicted human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — a claim originating with discredited biographer Michael Wolff.

Melania’s attorney, Alejandro Brito, immediately responded on August 6, threatening a $1 billion defamation lawsuit against Biden for what he called “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements.”

Turley, speaking on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, said Biden is effectively walking into disaster. “In the notice letter, they said they would be seeking $1 billion and I can say right now without discovery [that] he doesn’t have it. That’s a lot of paintings that he would have to move and their value has gone down dramatically since he left office,” Turley said.

He added that Melania’s legal team is already succeeding in setting the record straight: “The first lady has succeeded in getting several news outlets to retract this story. They really go after the source, this author named [Michael] Wolff who has been repeatedly challenged in terms of the accuracy of things he has written about the Trump family [and] the Trump administration … So this is not exactly welcome news for Hunter Biden.”

Indeed, outlets that amplified Wolff’s claims are backing down. The Daily Beast retracted its July 30 story — “Melania Trump Was ‘Very Involved’ in Epstein Scandal: Author” — and issued an apology after Brito’s legal warning. Democrat strategist James Carville also admitted fault, scrubbing a podcast video where he repeated Wolff’s allegations and apologizing for the remarks.

But Biden is not backing off. Asked on a recent Channel 5 episode if he would retract his statements, Biden shot back: “Fk that. That’s not gonna happen.”** He dismissed Brito’s lawsuit threat as a “distraction” and branded Melania’s attorneys “bullies.”

“I also think they’re bullies,” Biden said. “And they think that a billion dollars is going to scare me … I have this to say to them: if they want to sit down for a deposition and clarify the nature of the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein, if the president and the first lady want to do that, and all of the known associates around them at the time of whatever time that they met — I’m more than happy to provide them the platform to be able to do it.”

Turley noted that such reckless defiance could end up bolstering Melania’s legal case. While public figures must meet the high “actual malice” standard set by the Supreme Court in New York Times v. Sullivan, Biden’s open refusal to retract could be cited as evidence of reckless disregard for the truth.

“You don’t double down when others are retracting,” Turley said. “That could be seen as reckless disregard for the truth.”

If Brito follows through with a billion-dollar lawsuit, Biden faces the prospect of years of litigation, potential financial collapse, and the unmasking of his murky finances.

Turley’s bottom line: Hunter Biden is playing a dangerous game — and the first lady appears to hold the stronger hand.