President Biden's 53-year-old son attended a paternity suit hearing in Batesville as part of his ongoing battle to reduce payments for his 4-year-old daughter with Lunden Roberts, 32, a former stripper with whom he had a month-long affair.
Hunter's attorney, Abbe Lowell, argued that since a paternity test revealed he was the father, Hunter has been paying $20,000 per month to support little Navy Joan.
Lowell dropped the previously undisclosed figure as attorneys for both sides squabbled over documents that have already been submitted in the case, saying: “Maybe it’s time the world knows what Mr Biden is paying.”
During the two-hour proceedings, Judge Holly Meyer ordered Hunter to answer written questions about his current finances — including investments, his art sales and other financial transactions.
She also chastised Hunter’s legal team for overly redacting filings submitted to the court so far.
“The ability to redact is somewhat being abused,” Meyer told Biden’s attorneys before ordering them to re-file some of those documents. It wasn’t immediately clear what information the filings included.
Hunter, who has never met his daughter, was required to handover documents detailing his finances when he reopened the paternity case last September in a bid to reduce his child support payments.
The first son alleged he had experienced a “substantial material change” in his financial situation.
As the legal saga unfolded, Roberts accused her former flame of withholding evidence about his finances.
Roberts’ lawyer, Clinton Lancaster, argued during Monday’s hearing that Hunter had provided “incomplete answers” to questions related to his finances – including the names of people who purchased his artwork.
Hunter’s team, however, hit back – insisting the president’s son didn’t know the identities of the buyers as part of an arrangement to ensure they were unable to “influence” his father’s administration.
“He will not know. Someone else may know,” one of his attorneys told the judge.
Judge Meyer subsequently informed Roberts’ lawyer that he could “issue a subpoena” to force the gallery to divulge names and prices, adding: “It’s a little incredible that there is no estimate of valuations.”
Both Hunter and Roberts will have to sit for a deposition in mid-June to answer questions under oath, the judge said during Monday’s hearing.
A trial to determine whether Hunter’s child support payments can be reduced is set to take place in July.
Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Hunter took notes and briefly whispered to his attorneys during the hearing.
Unlike Roberts, whose family members crowded into the row behind her, Hunter was flanked only by his lawyers and two Secret Service agents.
As he left the courtroom, one woman sitting in the gallery shouted out: “Go Trump.”
Earlier, around a dozen law enforcement officers had stood in the parking lot as the first son was whisked in via a back entrance shortly before the hearing got underway.
The case has been ongoing since Roberts filed a paternity suit in Arkansas Circuit Court back in 2019 after Hunter denied fathering the little girl.
A DNA test subsequently confirmed Hunter was the father of Navy Joan and he agreed to start paying monthly child support to Roberts.
The paternity case was reopened last September when Hunter asked the court to recalculate his monthly payments due to an alleged “substantial material change” in his financial situation. It has previously been reported he had agreed to a payment totaling round $2.5 million for Navy.
His baby mama quickly fired back by demanding proof of Hunter’s financial records — including his art sales, properties and even details of his tax issues.
Her lawyers also rejected Hunter’s assertion of so-called financial difficulties, saying in court docs that the president’s son is actually “living lavishly” and has retained $850-per-hour attorneys to help him fight his case.
“Mr. Biden claims to be nothing more than a Yale educated attorney/artist who is somewhat financially destitute and needs his child support adjusted,” Roberts’ attorney, Clinton Lancaster, wrote in a 12-page motion.
“However, for an artist living on meager means, Mr. Biden is living lavishly.”
The attorney added: “He travels the world on the safest and most comfortable airplane in existence — Air Force One.”
Meanwhile, neither Hunter or President Biden have ever publicly acknowledged the little girl’s existence.
Outside court on Monday, Roberts’ lawyer slammed the president, saying: “I think it’s embarrassing the president doesn’t acknowledge his granddaughter — who looks just like his son.”
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