A judge ordered Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, to attend all paternity hearings concerning his out-of-wedlock child on Monday.
“From now on … I want both of your clients at every hearing I conduct,” Independence County Circuit Judge Holly Meyer said, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
“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 added, reportedly expressing frustration over a Zoom call.
The first son will be required to attend an in-person hearing May 1 at 9 a.m., the outlet reported. (RELATED: Biden Family Excludes Hunter Biden’s Daughter From Christmas Stockings Two Years In A Row)
Hunter Biden has been embroiled in lawsuits after he denied he was the father of four-year-old Navy Joan Roberts, whom he fathered with Lunden Roberts. He has never seen his daughter or expressed any desire to do so, Lunden Roberts’ lawyer, Clint Lancaster, told CNBC in 2022.
NEW YORK, NY – MAY 28: Hunter Biden attends the T&C Philanthropy Summit with screening of “Generosity Of Eye” at Lincoln Center with Town & Country on May 28, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Town & Country)
After a paternity test proved that Hunter Biden was the father, Roberts and Biden and reached a settlement in 2020. In December, her attorneys filed a motion to change Navy Joan Roberts’ last name to Biden, saying “the Biden name is now synonymous with being well educated, successful, financially acute, and politically powerful,” the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys issued a rebuttal, asking for proof of why the name “Biden” would be of interest to the child, according to the outlet.
Joe Biden has never publicly recognized Navy Joan Roberts as his grandchild. He and first lady Jill Biden hung Christmas stockings for their grandchildren two years in a row at the White House, but did not include one for her.