An exasperated Arkansas judge on Monday ordered Hunter Biden to appear in person in court for a May 1 hearing related to his paternity case.
Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, was ruled in 2020 to be the father of a girl born in 2018 to Lunden Roberts. In March 2020, a deal was reached on support payments for the child. Last year, Hunter Biden sought to adjust the payments, according to the Arkansas Times.
Now, Roberts has filed a motion to legally change her daughter’s last name to Biden.
On Monday, Circuit Judge Holly Meyer oversaw a hearing in which Brent Langdon, representing Hunter Biden, sought to prevent Garrett Ziegler, who has been designated as an expert witness by Roberts, from getting 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.
Attorney Clint Lancaster, representing Roberts, then mentioned the former laptop computer of Hunter Biden that has been a trove of information about his activities.
As reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, this led to a discussion between the judge and the lawyer representing Hunter Biden.
“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 attend future hearings in person.
“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 set May 1 for a hearing on the issue of Ziegler serving as an expert witness and on a motion from Roberts to hold Hunter Biden in contempt for not providing financial information as part of the discovery process. A July trial date has been set on the issues of the name change, which Hunter Biden opposes, and a new level of child support.
Family law attorney Peter M. Walzer said Hunter Biden’s opposition to the name change is “very uncommon,” according to the Washington Free Beacon.
“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.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.