Monday, an exasperated Arkansas judge ordered Hunter Biden to appear in court on May 1 for a hearing in his paternity case.
In 2020, it was determined that Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, was the father of a daughter born to Lunden Roberts in 2018. In March of 2020, an agreement was reached regarding child support payments. According to the Arkansas Times, Hunter Biden sought to modify the payments last year.
Now, Roberts has submitted a legal petition to alter her daughter’s last name to Biden.
Monday, Circuit Judge Holly Meyer presided over a hearing in which Brent Langdon, representing Hunter Biden, attempted to prevent expert witness Garrett Ziegler from obtaining financial information about Hunter Biden.
“What’s happened is Mr. Ziegler is riding along with the horse that the plaintiff is on to use this court as his podium to continue his attacks on the Biden family,” Langdon said.
The attorney representing Roberts, Clint Lancaster, then mentioned the former laptop computer of Hunter Biden, which contained a wealth of information about his activities.
According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, this prompted a discussion between the magistrate and Hunter Biden’s attorney.
“There has never been, to my knowledge, an acknowledgment that this so-called laptop — he continuously calls it Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, ” Langdon said.
“Well, let’s clear that issue up right now. Is it your client’s laptop or not?” Meyer said.
“Your honor, I’m not involved in all of that stuff. It’s not my client’s laptop as far as I know,” he said. Hunter Biden has said publicly the computer is his.
“Is it your client’s position, you’re representing to this court, that it is not his laptop?” Meyer asked.
“Your honor, I am not in a position to even begin to answer that question,” Langdon said.
Meyer then demanded that Hunter Biden and Roberts appear in person at future proceedings.
“You can’t shuck and jive on these issues. We need answers, and we need to move forward,” she said, according to the Arkansas Times.
“I will no longer allow us to excuse clients … because it is interfering with the progress of litigation, which is taking way too long to get over simple points,” she said, according to the Democrat-Gazette.
Meyer then scheduled a hearing for May 1 to address the issue of Ziegler serving as an expert witness and Roberts’ motion to hold Hunter Biden in contempt for failing to provide financial information as part of the discovery process. The issues of the name change, which Hunter Biden opposes, and a new child support amount will be tried in July.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, family law counsel Peter M. Walzer stated that Hunter Biden’s opposition to the name change is “very uncommon.”
“He doesn’t want the child to have his name because it’s embarrassing to him, [but he] couches his legal briefing in terms of the child’s interest. From his papers it’s ‘all about me,’” he said.