Initial proceedings in a paternity case involving Hunter Biden, son of former vice president and 2020 Democratic primary candidate Joe Biden, are reportedly off to a disastrous start this week.
According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Biden's attorneys -- Bart W. Calhoun, Jessica Duncan Johnston and the state's former Attorney General Dustin McDaniel -- "abruptly withdrew" themselves from the case just minutes after the first child support hearings began Monday morning.
Citing "an irreconcilable conflict," the motion to withdraw reportedly came as a result of communications from Biden’s yet unnamed personal lawyer who "advised undersigned counsel of discharge, which is additional grounds for mandatory withdrawal."
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Biden himself failed to make an appearance Monday at the Batesville, Arkansas, courthouse, according to the Daily Mail.
News of this ongoing custody battle broke over the summer when reports circulated indicating a 28-year-old Lunden Roberts had officially filed a paternity lawsuit alleging the 49-year-old politician's son was the father of her 1-year-old child.
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Numerous rumors have since arisen surrounding the case but, given the age of the child and a number of converging accounts, it seems Biden entered into a relationship with Roberts some time between late 2017 and early 2018 -- while the latter worked as a stripper in a D.C. "gentleman's club."
This also happens to coincide with a deeply controversial, and recently terminated, romantic relationship between Biden and his brother Beau’s widow, Hallie Biden.
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A paternity test recently conducted at a neutral Oklahoma City facility indicated with 99.9 percent certainty that Biden is, in fact, the father, The Western Journal reported in November.
“There is a Biden in Arkansas,” Roberts' lawyer Clinton Lancaster told the outlet. “Ms. Roberts wants Mr. Biden to support his child."
"We want people to do the right thing," Lancaster added.
Consequently, the Daily Mail reported, Roberts is suing Biden for $11,000 in legal fees, a yet undetermined child support allotment and even Secret Service protections for "Baby Doe."
Worse yet for Biden, however, is this case's ability to bring to light further details regarding his involvement with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings.
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Biden was brought on at Burisma in 2014, claiming a million-dollar seat on the company's board of directors whilst his father was actively spearheading the Obama administration's anti-corruption campaign in Ukraine.
The business relationship has produced numerous allegations of potential conflict of interest over the years, even in light of Biden's departure from the board in early 2019, as the company has on more than one occasion been fingered for potential corruption as a result of substantial financial discrepancies.
Further scrutiny fell on the business relationship in October, when a whistleblower complaint alleged President Donald Trump had mentioned both Burisma and the Biden's in a July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, illicitly leveraging American foreign aid to the nation in return for law enforcement investigation into the family of a political rival.
That call has since become the subject of a Democratic push to impeach Trump, but political commentators and administration officials suggest the president had legitimate reasons to push for such corruption-related investigations in Ukraine.
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And with Arkansas Judge Don McSpadden ruling Monday that Biden will be forced to turn over three years of tax returns, as the Daily Mail reported, there is tremendous potential for further details to come to light regarding the true extent of the Bidens' dealings with Burisma.
Biden has proven skittish in producing such disclosures, filing a petition last week to seal all financial records -- which will likely include "information on his business ventures, investments, expenses, taxes and personal property valuations" -- to prevent public "embarrassment" over alleged financial debts.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
