As Child Support Case Moves Forward, Hunter Biden Must Soon Open ‘Pandora’s Box,’ Disclosing Allegedly Murky Finances

As congressional Republicans probe Hunter Biden’s alleged murky financial dealings with Ukrainian and Chinese foreign entities, the first son’s embarrassing child support case is also moving forward, with the president’s fils facing a July 10 deadline to make financial disclosures or be locked up in the Cleburne County jail in Arkansas.The younger Mr. Biden, who has long sought to conceal his earnings, may be regretting his request to reduce child support payments to the mother of one of his children, Lunden Roberts, a former stripper. The judge reviewing the case has agreed with Ms. Roberts’s lawyers that he should make extensive financial disclosures. This could open what some observers like CNN’s Elie Honig have called a “Pandora’s Box,” putting on display Mr. Biden’s sources of income, including what he’s made from sales of paintings he created and recently sold at prices that seem high for a budding artist.Hunter Biden is also being painted in a poor light following the disclosure of text messages showing his lack of care for Ms. Roberts after she gave birth to their daughter in 2018.According to text messages published this week by the Washington Free Beacon, Mr. Biden in 2018 ignored texts from Ms. Roberts telling him about the baby’s birth, and soon afterward cut her off financially.“Baby was born Aug 28,” Ms. Roberts wrote in a text to Mr. Biden after the child’s birth. “Beautiful & Healthy. If you ever become curious and want to know more I can send pictures, details, or whatever you may request. I know that’s a long shot and you’d much rather avoid the whole situation, but just wanted you to know the door is always open for you in the baby’s life.” Mr. Biden never responded to that text message. He reportedly met Ms. Roberts in 2017 when she worked as a stripper at one of the Washington, D.C., gentlemen’s clubs the younger Mr. Biden was known to frequent. He has later said he was so drunk and high at the time Ms. Roberts became pregnant that he does not remember their sexual encounters. At some point around 2018, though, Mr. Biden put Ms. Roberts on the payroll of one of his companies, Owasco PC. After the child’s birth, according to the text messages, Hunter Biden texted his personal assistant, Katie Dodge, telling her to “take Lunden off payroll.” In the same text exchanges with Ms. Dodge, Mr. Biden refers to Ms. Roberts as “what’s her name.”At the time Mr. Biden was demanding that Ms. Roberts be taken off his payroll — which also resulted in the termination of her health insurance — he grew increasingly angry with Ms. Dodge for apparently not remembering to have cut off Ms. Roberts earlier. Ms. Dodge responded, saying she did not remember that demand, but did “remember a conversation where I was disappointed that you wanted to pay her the same rate as me. But I am over that.”Ms. Roberts would sue for child support in 2019. Hunter Biden initially denied paternity, but after he was compelled by the courts to take a paternity test in 2020 that confirmed he was the child’s father, he began paying Ms. Roberts $20,000 a month. In September of last year, he asked a court at Batesville, Arkansas — where Ms. Roberts now lives — to lower his required monthly payments, citing a “substantial material change” to his income. On June 7, the presiding judge in the case, Holly Meyer, said in a filing that Mr. Biden has so far failed to disclose the requisite financial information in order to justify a reduction in payments despite months of demands.Judge Meyer wrote in her order that he could face a number of consequences if he once again fails to turn over his records. She writes that, at a maximum, he could be sentenced to six months in prison for civil contempt and six months in prison for criminal contempt. He may also have to pay a $20,000 fine to Ms. Roberts. Ms. Roberts’s legal team has filed three requests with the court in recent months asking that Mr. Biden be jailed for his lack of compliance. Judge Meyer’s June 7 order followed a May 1 hearing in Arkansas that Mr. Biden was required to attend in person. Three weeks after that court appearance, Ms. Roberts’s attorneys claimed Mr. Biden and his legal team had been “playing games with discovery” by failing to disclose a full picture of his finances. Ms. Roberts and her lawyers claimed his lack of transparency is a “willful and contemptuous violation” of the court’s orders. They asked that he be held in criminal contempt and placed in jail pending release of the documents, which Judge Meyer did not do. Mr. Biden is also suing to stop Ms. Roberts from changing her daughter’s surname to Biden. Since ending his relationship with Ms. Roberts, Mr. Biden has remarried and is now living in exclusive Malibu, California, with his second wife, Melissa Cohen, and their toddler child. Mr. Biden is now father to five children: three with his first wife, one with Ms. Roberts, and one with Ms. Cohen.

As Child Support Case Moves Forward, Hunter Biden Must Soon Open ‘Pandora’s Box,’ Disclosing Allegedly Murky Finances

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