A long-running and deeply personal legal battle involving Hunter Biden has flared up again, with the mother of his young daughter asking an Arkansas judge to take the extraordinary step of jailing the former first son until he complies with court-ordered obligations.
According to the New York Post, Lunden Roberts, who shares a 7-year-old daughter with Biden, filed a motion Tuesday urging the court to reopen their case and hold him in contempt.
The filing argues that Biden has repeatedly failed to live up to the terms of a child support agreement finalized in 2023 and only responds when forced by legal pressure.
“Incarcerate him in the Independence County Detention Center as a civil penalty until he purges his contempt by complying with this court’s orders,” the motion states.
The agreement Roberts and Biden reached two years ago ended a bitter public fight over paternity and finances.
As part of the deal, Roberts dropped her request that her daughter be allowed to take the Biden last name and sharply reduced her monthly child support demand from $20,000 to $5,000.
According to the new filing, Biden initially made efforts to build a relationship with his daughter through scheduled phone calls. That contact allegedly ended in 2024 after Roberts released her memoir, “Out of the Shadows”.
The motion claims the book “neither disparaged nor derided” Biden, but that communication with the child abruptly stopped nonetheless.
Roberts alleges the lack of contact has caused emotional harm. The filing claims the girl was especially distressed after attending a family wedding and realizing her father would not walk her down the aisle or dance with her at the reception.
Biden is accused of creating “emotional trauma” for the child, identified in court documents as MC1.
“The defendant should be incarcerated as a criminal penalty for flaunting the dignity and authority of this court,” the motion adds, arguing that jail is the only consequence that will prompt compliance.
Despite the situation, the filing describes the child as holding onto an idealized image of her father.
“She ‘could not wait to get to heaven’ so she could ‘be with (her) dad’ who ‘lives far away and is really busy,’” the motion states.
Roberts also argues that Biden’s expressions of guilt and remorse were used to persuade her to accept a lower level of financial support.
“To this day, MC1 has not heard again from her father, and this is baffling to [Roberts] and her family because Mr. Biden said that he had ‘lived in guilt and remorse every second of every day that [he] hasn’t been in [MC1’s] life,’” the filing reads.
The motion further asks the court to revisit the amount of child support, citing changes in Biden’s income and alleging the child does not enjoy the same standard of living as Biden’s other children.
“MC1 has begun to realize that she does not have access to the same lifestyle as Mr. Biden’s other children, and that is not fair to MC1,” the motion states. “It is axiomatic that no one can force Mr. Biden into being a good dad for MC1, but this court can make it so that MC1 has, at least, the same level of support as MC1’s younger half-brother.”
The judge has not yet ruled on Roberts’ request.
