Hunter Biden has settled a long-standing child support dispute with an Arkansas woman who is the mother of one of his children, apparently concluding the latest legal dispute that has created headlines for President Biden’s son.
Hunter Biden and the child’s mother, Lunden Roberts, have agreed to settle the case, according to a document filed in Arkansas court on Thursday. Hunter Biden, who has been paying child support of $20,000 per month, will probably have that payment reduced as part of the deal.
The president’s son, who is trying to launch a career as a painter, also agreed to provide several of his paintings, which could be sold to benefit his young daughter.
“The child shall select the paintings which shall either be sent to the child or sent to a gallery designated by Lunden Roberts,” the agreement states. “The net proceeds of any sales of paintings shall be wired to an account designated by Lunden Roberts.”
Roberts also agreed to drop her attempts to rename their daughter. She had petitioned to give the girl, who is now 4, the last name Biden, arguing that it carried prestige and cachet. Hunter Biden had resisted the move.
Attorneys for Hunter Biden and Lunden Roberts did not return requests for comment.
Republicans have long focused attention on the legal struggles of the president’s son, seeking to portray them as a reflection of the Biden family’s ostensible ethical challenges. Democrats have criticized the efforts as a misguided focus on the private battles of a presidential family member.
Hunter Biden has rarely spoken publicly about Lunden Roberts. He briefly mentions her in his memoir, saying he spent time with women who “were hardly the dating type” after his divorce and was not “proud of it.”
He added, “I had no recollection of our encounter. That’s how little connection I had with anyone. I was a mess, but a mess I’ve taken responsibility for.”
To President Biden’s circle, his son’s paternity and child support struggles are a regrettable outcome of a devastating drug addiction, one Hunter Biden has admitted and written about. He married Melissa Cohen in 2019, and the two have a son, and he has said he is working hard to rectify the damage he has caused. Hunter Biden also has three other children.
But his critics don’t see it that way, asserting that the child support battle is further evidence of Hunter Biden’s shady character. While the case has received little notice from the broader public, it has generated interest among conservative news outlets and people in former president Donald Trump’s sphere.
But the child support case is not the only legal challenge the younger Biden has faced.
Last week, Hunter Biden reached an agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to two minor tax crimes and admit to lying on a gun purchase application, a deal that will probably enable him to avoid jail time in the case. That proposed deal still needs approval from a federal judge, which could come next month in Wilmington, Del.
Hunter Biden’s attorney has said the deal on the federal charges means the long-running criminal investigation “is resolved.” But Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, the lead prosecutor in the case, has said the investigation “is ongoing,” suggesting that matters beyond the tax and gun issues are still under scrutiny.
In any case, some Republicans have complained that the federal deal amounted to lenient treatment for the president’s son. Democrats reject that claim, noting that Weiss was appointed by Trump.
The paternity case arose in 2019 when Hunter Biden denied fathering Roberts’s baby, prompting her to file a suit that paved the way for a DNA test confirming he was the father. The two sides settled that dispute in March 2020, and Hunter Biden began paying child support.
But last year, Hunter Biden’s lawyer filed a motion to reduce the payments, suggesting his client’s economic condition had worsened and citing “a substantial material change in [Biden’s] financial circumstances, including but not limited to his income.” That is the request that was resolved on Thursday.
The apparent resolutions of the two cases surrounding Hunter Biden, on child support and criminal charges, come just as his father pivots to what is likely to be a hard-fought reelection campaign. Trump, who sought to make Hunter Biden’s troubles an issue in the 2020 campaign, leads the Republican field.
But the agreements in the court battles do not mean that Hunter Biden is in the clear just yet. House Republicans have said they intend to pursue investigations of the younger Biden, including an examination of his business dealings over the years.
In addition, GOP leaders recently sent a letter to the Department of Justice requesting that FBI and Justice officials in the Hunter Biden tax investigation appear before a House committee for transcribed interviews.
The letter, obtained by The Washington Post, includes requests for nine DOJ and two FBI officials to face questions over the investigation into the president’s son. The request comes after two IRS agents who supervised the investigation told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that Justice Department officials slowed and stymied the investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances.