What’s next in the Hunter Biden child support legal saga

President Joe Biden’s boy, Hunter Biden, is stuck in a controversial and extremely individual kid assistance fight with an Arkansas female who is the mom of among his children.

The celebrations reached a settlement in 2020 where Hunter Biden would pay regular monthly kid assistance of $20,000 to Lunden Roberts, however Hunter Biden resumed the case in 2015 by asking a judge to lower the payments.

The case has actually given that changed into a partisan proxy war of sorts, pitting the president’s boy versus Republican attorneys who are attempting to get their hands on his monetary records– consisting of a number of the exact same products that Home GOP legislators are looking for as part of their probes into the Biden household.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s showing up next the prominent case.

This is the due date for both celebrations to turn over some extra product and response another round of composed concerns as part of the discovery procedure.

Self-reliance County Circuit Judge Holly Meyer has actually bought Hunter Biden to offer more fulsome responses to composed concerns about his financial resources, consisting of more comprehensive actions about his art sales and income tax return.

The judge likewise bought Roberts to offer more info about any earnings she gets from operating at her dad’s weapon shop in Batesville, Arkansas. Both celebrations are likewise needed to turn over any text or e-mails that they discussed the case or about the other individual.

These disclosures will not be public. They will just be shared amongst the opposing legal groups.

This is when Garrett Ziegler, a prospective trial witness, will sit for a sworn deposition. Roberts is attempting to generate Ziegler– a previous Trump White Home assistant who has actually promoted conservative conspiracy theories– as an “professional witness” to boost her case.

Ziegler runs a site that has actually released e-mails, texts, photos, videos, bank records and other product from a laptop computer presumably coming from Hunter Biden, which has actually ended up being a lightning arrester for GOP attacks versus the Biden household.

He stated in a sworn affidavit for the paternity case that he has actually “invested years studying Hunter Biden” which he is a specialist about Hunter Biden’s “way of life … and individual financial resources.”.

However he might likewise be liability for Roberts. Hunter Biden’s lawyers recommended in court that Ziegler is dripping delicate info about the case– an assertion that Roberts’ attorneys rejected. Ziegler likewise has a history of promoting conservative conspiracy theories. After he affirmed to the January 6 choose committee in 2015, he openly went on a profane and sexist tirade, that included racial attacks versus Home legislators, anti-Semitic tropes and misogynistic slurs.

The deposition will be performed behind closed doors.

This is the next in-person hearing in the event, which will occur at the Self-reliance County Circuit Court in Batesville.

Meyer has stated that this pretrial hearing will attend to any staying discovery problems, and will set the schedule for the approaching trial.

This is likewise when the judge will handle the concern of perhaps holding Hunter Biden in criminal contempt, if it is still a live matter. Last month, Roberts asked the judge to discover Hunter Biden in contempt and send him to prison for presumably breaching the court’s orders to turn over monetary records.

Nevertheless, at a hearing Monday, Meyer informed Roberts’ attorneys that they require to submit more official legal documents in order to start a contempt hearing. Hunter Biden rejects misdeed.

This is when Hunter Biden, Roberts and others will sit for sworn depositions.

It’s regular for the celebrations associated with a case to be deposed as part of the pretrial discovery procedure. However it’s not typical for the sitting president’s boy to be tangled in a delicate legal disagreement like this.

Hunter Biden will be questioned under oath by Roberts’ attorneys, who are kept in mind Republican activists who belonged to previous President Donald Trump’s legal group that attempted to reverse the outcomes of the 2020 election in Wisconsin.

The depositions will be performed behind closed doors.

The trial is arranged to take place at the regional court house in Batesville.

It will be a bench trial, which indicates there isn’t a jury. Meyer will command the trial, heat the proof, and problem choices on the crucial concerns at play.

Currently, there are 2 primary problems on the table for the trial: Hunter Biden wishes to lower his kid $20,000-a-month kid assistance payments, which Roberts opposes. And Roberts wishes to alter the surname of their four-year-old child from “Roberts” to “Biden,” a switch that Hunter Biden opposes.

Hold-ups are possible, which is a typical event in prominent legal cases. Roberts’ legal representative stated in court today that he may ask for a brief post ponement. It will depend on the judge to choose.