He doesn’t want to give her his bad name.
Hunter Biden asked a judge to deny his 4-year-old daughter from taking his surname — claiming it’s a lightning rod for criticism and would rob the child of a “peaceful existence.”
The first son’s request on Jan. 6 came amid an ongoing paternity case against him in Independence, Ark., where Biden is fighting to lower his child-support payments to baby mama Lunden Roberts for their love child, Navy Joan Roberts.
Roberts, 31, asked Circuit Court Judge Holly Meyer on Dec. 27 to allow their daughter to take the Biden name, claiming it would benefit their daughter because it is “now synonymous with being well educated, successful, financially acute and politically powerful.”
But the president’s erratic son — who was being probed for shady foreign business deals, battled crack addiction, and been filmed waiving a gun around in the nude with a prostitute — disagreed about the value of his sullied surname.
His lawyer fired off a motion the following week to ask the judge to deny Roberts’ request, arguing that his daughter should decide for herself once “the disparagement of the Biden name is not at its height.”
Biden, who became the center of national controversy after emails and records on his laptop allegedly revealed a scheme to sell his father’s influence for millions of dollars to American adversaries, cited criticism from his ex as proof that his family name is being dragged through the mud.
Biden pointed to court filings from Roberts that reference the federal probe into his tax affairs and his dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma in response to his request to lower his child support payments.
Roberts’ motivation is now “political warfare” against the Bidens, the first son claims, and reverses her efforts in late 2019 to redact their daughter’s name and any other identifying information about her from the public court record.
Her “disparaging comments in various other motions and responses, in this
Roberts says the Biden name will open opportunities for the girl “just like it has for other members of the Biden family.”
She also claimed that the name change would make things right while her daughter remains “estranged” from the first family.
“To the extent, this is misconduct or neglect, it can be rectified by changing her last name to Biden so that she may undeniably be known to the world as the child of the defendant and member of the prestigious Biden family,” Roberts said in her filing.
After Hunter Biden initially denied having sex with Roberts, a DNA test conducted in 2019 confirmed he is the father. Biden met Roberts, a former stripper in Arkansas, while she was working at a club in Washington DC, around the same time Hunter was dating his older brother’s widow.
The dispute was settled outside of court in 2020 after the DNA results came in but was reopened in September after Biden sought to lower his child support payments, citing a “substantial material change” in his “financial circumstances.”
Lunden Roberts declined to comment on the court proceedings, and her attorney, Clinton Lancaster, did not return requests for comment. Brent Langdon, Biden’s attorney, did not respond to requests for comment.
