Hunter Biden is ripped into by Arkansas judge for 'sealing and redacting' his ... trends now
The judge presiding over Hunter Biden's child support trial on Monday ripped into the First Son for 'sealing and redacting' his financial information.
'The ability to redact is somewhat being abused,' Judge Holly Meyer fumed. ‘I’m seeing a lot of things filed, especially by Mr. Biden’s counsel, sealing things, redacting things, that are not confidential.'
She suggested that lawyers for the First Son's baby mama should subpoena a downtown Manhattan art gallery to find out exactly how much he has made from selling his art.
And the judge ordered the First Son to produce more financial documents to back his claim that he should be allowed to reduce the amount he gives Lunden Roberts each month.
Roberts, 32, and Biden, 53, came face to face for the first time since she gave birth to his daughter, Navy Joan, now four.
Hunter Biden, 53, is pictured arriving at a Batesville, Arkansas courthouse on Monday
The hearing marks the first time Biden came face to face with Lunden Roberts (pictured on Monday) since she gave birth to his daughter, Navy Joan, now four
Though Biden occasionally looked across at her in the courtroom in Batesville, Arkansas, Roberts, who was supported in court by her parents Rob and Kimberly and her sister Randi Jo Bolin, avoided eye contact.
Neither party was called to testify as their legal teams sparred over disclosure requests before agreeing to take depositions in June ahead of a July trial.
Wearing a dark suit and tie, Biden listened intently but said nothing as Roberts’s attorney Clint Lancaster reeled off a list of items that he claimed Hunter’s team had not answered or explained properly in their discovery responses.
He said these included a line in Hunter’s tax returns referencing a $9 million investment in a Chinese entity which came with no further explanation.
‘He’s wrong, that’s not what it states,’ Biden’s hotshot DC lawyer Abbe Lowell shot back. The judge said the exchange was a perfect illustration of why Hunter had to be more forthcoming.
Lancaster then asked Hunter’s team why he had not listed any hotel stays over a five-year period aside from a single occasion when he slept ‘on a cot in his dad’s room’. His lawyers insisted that was accurate.
Lancaster said he was also missing the names of Hunter’s art buyers and the valuations of his pricey paintings which are on display at the upscale George Berges Gallery in Manhattan.
Attorneys for the First Son have tried to explain that he does not know the identities of his art buyers as part of a purported arrangement to ensure they are unable to 'influence' his father's administration.
But the judge said she found it ‘incredible’ his lawyers couldn’t give an idea of the prices. She then told Lancaster he could subpoena the gallery to find out more.
A judge on Monday suggested Robert's attorney, Clint Lancaster, subpoena a downtown Manhattan art gallery to find out exactly how much Biden has made from selling his art
Lancaster is pictured here talking to the press about the hearing on Monday
Hunter’s responses also failed to specify precisely how much money he had been handed by his so-called ‘sugar brother’ pal Kevin Morris and what it was for.
Morris, a prominent Hollywood attorney who reportedly loaned Hunter $2.8 million to pay off a 2021 tax bill, was simply a ‘concerned friend’, Lowell replied.
Judge Meyer ordered Hunter to produce more information, however, saying: ‘That’s a pretty lame answer.’
When it was Hunter’s turn to complain about Roberts, his team brought up Garrett Ziegler – a former Trump administration staffer and longtime Hunter nemesis – who is an expert witness for Roberts and was sat in court.
Lowell said he had not been sent so much as a resume or report from his counterparts about Ziegler’s looming evidence.
Lancaster responded by pulling out a copy of a 644-page analysis Ziegler prepared on the contents of Hunter’s notorious abandoned laptop for his non-profit Marco Polo.
He then handed the massive stack of papers – entitled ‘Report – Biden’s laptop’ – to an incredulous Langdon, saying: ‘That’s all I have.’
Roberts agreed to hand over paperwork covering her car lease, her house and her work for her father’s gun business. Both parties agreed to turn over five years of phone records covering any messages relating to Navy Joan.
Earlier in the hearing, Lowell suggested it was time the world knew how much his client was shelling out for the child he has never met.
‘Mr. Biden is paying the plaintiff $20,000 a month,’ Lowell told the two-hour hearing. He later said the total figure handed over was $750,000.
Hunter hopped out of a silver SUV and headed inside at 8.45am, stopping briefly to shake someone's hand in the entrance way
Hunter’s lawyers kicked off the hearing on Monday by complaining about recent DailyMail.com articles scrutinizing the First Son’s lavish lifestyle, including references to him driving a Porsche and flying on Air Force One.
‘The Porsche was repo’d’, protested Brent Langdon, another of Biden’s legal team. ‘By the way, my client has been on Air Force One one time, and that was recent.’
Hunter’s lawyers read out the headline from an exclusive April 28 DailyMail.com
