Hunter Biden has narrowly avoided the inside of a jail cell. It was announced Tuesday that he had reached a deal with the mother of his child, Lunden Roberts, over their outstanding discovery issues. Attorneys for both parties announced they had settled the issues they had planned to discuss in court.
Biden agreed Monday to hand over records to his high-priced legal team and to resolve all of their remaining discovery issues. During the discovery phase, litigating parties exchange information that they plan to use at trial, according to the American Bar Association.
The two had been scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, but they announced they had reached an agreement and that the hearing was unnecessary.
Roberts’ attorney, Clint Lancaster, had filed a motion last week that sought “civil contempt of incarceration until such time as the defendant fully answers discovery and to be paid for her attorney’s fees and costs,” and $20,000 in lawyer fees.
Hunter Biden Legal Payments at Center of Dispute
Last month, Lancaster noted that Biden has “some of the most expensive attorneys on planet Earth” and that Washington attorney Abbe Lowell, a member of his legal team, charges $885/hour for his services.
A motion filed by Lancaster last month stated: “The amount of money paid to these attorneys is indicative of the defendant’s income and his ability to pay money for child support.”
Earlier this month Arkansas Circuit Court Judge Holly Meyer gave Biden until May 12 to turn over his financial records to Roberts, but he was not forthcoming to Roberts’ satisfaction.
The financial records were requested as part of the discovery phase of the pair’s legal struggle over Biden’s request to reduce the $20,000 he pays in child support each month. The two reached the existing child-support settlement in 2020 after a 2019 test proved that Biden fathered their child, Navy Joan Roberts. Biden has never met the child and has no relationship with her.
Biden has cried poverty and claims he has experienced a “substantial material change” in his financial situation.
Lancaster had chided Biden for hiding his assets.
“Mr. Biden does not want to disclose his income and assets, says that he is somewhat financially destitute, while he lives on a mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, has Secret Service protection, and enjoys his time abroad,” Lancaster wrote in court papers filed last week.
Roberts Lawyer Threatens to Call Biden Business Partners to Testify
Lancaster has threatened to call some of Biden’s business partners to testify about his true income. A witness list presented in court papers includes several individuals who congressional Republicans also have been investigating.
The witness list includes Devon Archer, who Biden served on the board of the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma with and has been closely associated with President Joe Biden.
John “Rob” Robinson Walker, who congressional investigators found provided Biden family members with a total of $1 million in the months after Joe Biden left the vice presidency, appears on the list.
Jeff Cooper, who helped Biden orchestrate business deals with several Mexican oligarchs, could be asked to appear.
Eric Schwerin, former president of Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca Partners, also has the potential to be called.
Georges Berges, the art dealer who had been working with Biden to sell his paintings, likewise appears on the list. House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., accused Berges of refusing to cooperate with his committee’s investigation earlier this month.
“If successful, this could get a lot worse for Hunter in his allegedly efforts to conceal his past incomes. On the list are business partners at the center of the influence peddling scandal,” George Washington Law Professor Jonathan Turley wrote on Twitter.
John Rossomando was a senior analyst for Defense Policy and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
