A judge has ruled that Hunter Biden must appear in an Arkansas court for his paternity case.
Lawyers for his baby mama Lunden Roberts say former flame Hunter, 53, has not provided ‘a single item or word of discovery’ in their ongoing child support lawsuit.
Independence County Circuit Judge Holly Meyer today ordered Biden to attend the court hearing on May 1 because his absence is ‘interfering with the process of litigation.’
She said today: ‘From now on … I want both of your clients at every hearing I conduct. 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.’
In a Friday filing, lawyers for Roberts insisted the recovering drug addict should be locked up at the Cleburne County Detention Center and stay there until he complies with a court order to hand over the docs, DailyMail.com revealed.
The judge’s latest demands comes after she expressed frustration during a Zoom hearing Monday. The comment came after Biden’s paternity case representative Brent Langdon said that his laptop was still in a repair shop.
There will now be an in-person hearing for 9am on May 1 at the Independence County courthouse in Batesville, Arkansas, which Biden must attend.
The filing comes as it’s learned Hunter’s lawyers are scheduled to meet with US attorney David Weiss next week over four charges against him – three related to tax crimes and a felony charge related to a gun purchase.
The child support bombshell comes six months after Hunter tried to recalculate the monthly amount he pays Roberts, 32, the mother of Navy Joan Roberts – the little girl he barely acknowledges is his.
The move backfired when single mom Roberts refused to re-negotiate and demanded that Hunter produce detailed financial records to demonstrate why he’s suffered a ‘substantial’ loss of earnings.
In the new filing, her attorney, Clinton Lancaster, accuses the First Son of ‘flaunting the dignity and authority of the court’ by failing to adhere to the discovery rules and deadlines which were reasserted at a February 22 hearing.
‘In those two months, the defendant has provided no additional discovery – not so much as one single item or word – and has failed to supplement his answers at the court’s directive,’ Lancaster fumes.
‘There is no valid excuse or justification for the defendant’s failure to provide the required disclosures as the court has granted every single protective order the defendant has asked for since the inception of this case … the defendant is playing games with this court.’
Calling on Circuit Judge Holly Meyer to hold Hunter in contempt, Lancaster adds: ‘The defendant’s actions are a willful and flagrant violation of this court’s previous order entered on the defendant’s motion.
‘This court should incarcerate the defendant in the Cleburne County Detention Center until he complies with this court’s orders and answers discovery. In the alternative, this court should sanction the defendant as appropriate and just.’
The bitterly contested case is likely headed toward a two-day bench trial in July.
Hunter will also have to submit to a deposition in June in which Roberts’ lawyers will likely grill him about his various businesses and shady overseas ventures.
They’ll also want to know how it’s possible that Hunter’s finances have cratered while he’s selling paintings for up to $500,000 apiece under his new guise as an abstract artist.
Roberts won a reported $2.5 million settlement from Hunter after taking him to court in 2019 and forcing him to take a DNA test to prove he fathered Navy Joan during their 2017 fling.
Also filed Friday was correspondence suggesting that Hunter’s legal team are trying to block Roberts from retaining Garrett Ziegler, a former Trump administration staffer, as an expert witness.
Biden and his lawyer pal Kevin Morris are suing Zeigler, founder of conservative think-tank Marco Polo, for alleged harassment and invasion of privacy in a separate case related to his infamous abandoned laptop.
‘The last time I checked, the opposing party does not get to choose the other party’s expert witness,’ Lancaster wrote to his counterparts on April 21.
‘Even if Mr. Ziegler were not an expert, which he is a bona fide expert on Hunter Biden, I would hire him as a staff member of my law firm for his work on this case.
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