President Joe Biden’s son has been ordered to appear in court in Arkansas amid a child support dispute involving a child he does not acknowledge.
Hunter Biden is required to appear in a Batesville, Arkansas courtroom at 9 a.m. on May 1 for a hearing over a contempt charge filed against him as part of the ongoing case.
Biden fathered a child with Lunden Roberts, a stripper who worked at the Mpire Club in Washington, D.C., in 2018. He initially denied his connection to the child and said he did not recall meeting Roberts.
In 2019, Roberts petitioned the court to confirm Biden’s paternity and to establish child support, which was ultimately established in March of 2020 as part of a $2.5 million settlement.
Six months later, Biden’s attorneys requested a hearing so that child support could be reassessed based on a reported change in the first son’s income. His legal team also requested information about the case – including his financial information – be sealed. While the case was sealed, Circuit Judge Holly Meyer declined to adjust Biden’s child support payments.
“There is good cause for the protection of private information of the parties in this cause,” Meyers wrote in her decision according to The New York Post. Meyers also found that “the court has no concern for the political nature or aspects surrounding this case.”
“This is a case about child support and the court has treated and will continue to treat these parties as any other members of this judicial district,” the judge added.
Republican members of Congress expressed concern earlier this week that Biden was using his privileges as the child of the president to avoid being contacted amid the ongoing legal battle. It has been rumored that Biden was staying in the White House to avoid being served legal papers related to the child support dispute.
Roberts petitioned the court in December to be allowed to change now four-year-old Navy’s last name to Biden. Roberts argued in her filings that the surname would benefit her child as it is “synonymous with being well educated, successful, financially acute and politically powerful.”
“To the extent, this is misconduct or neglect, it can be rectified by changing her last name to Biden so that she may undeniably be known to the world as the child of the defendant and member of the prestigious Biden family,” Roberts said in her filing.
None of the Bidens, including Hunter’s four other children, have ever met Navy. Hunter Biden had three children, Naomi, Finnegan, and Masy, with his first wife, Kathleen Buhle, and one son, Beau, with his current wife, South African filmmaker Melissa Cohen. Cohen and Biden reportedly got married within 10 days of their first meeting in 2019.
Hunter Biden fought to prevent Navy from taking his last name. His lawyers argued the child should decide for herself when “the disparagement of the Biden name is not at its height,” per The Daily Mail.
President Biden does also not acknowledge Navy’s connection to his family. He told reporters at an event commemorating Take Your Child to Work Day that he speaks to his “six grandchildren” every day.
“I have six grandchildren, and I’m crazy about them. And I speak to them every single day — not a joke,” Biden said, per The Washington Examiner. “As a matter of fact, I just got finished going through the calls, and only one of them answered the phone, but at least I got to leave a message.”
“And guess what, they’re crazy about me because I pay so much attention to them,” he added.
