Judge Recuses Himself from Hunter Biden Paternity Case Without Explanation
Arkansas Judge Don McSpadden recused himself without explanation Tuesday from Hunter Biden’s paternity case after ordering the son of former Vice President Joe Biden to hand over all income records over the past five years.
McSpadden, of Independence County’s circuit court, had said that the handing over of financial information was in the well-being of 1-year-old “Baby Doe,” the child of Biden and Lunden Alexis Roberts, the plaintiff in the case. McSpadden also ordered that the financial information be under seal and only available to the attorneys in the case.
Other individuals have attempted to use the case to get access to Biden’s financials.
Private investigator Dominic Casey filed a motion to intervene on December 27, claiming that access to Biden’s financials show a “counterfeiting scheme” in Ukraine that accumulated a $150 million fortune. Another man, “defrauded investor” Joel Caplan, filed a different motion to intervene on behalf of other investors who were allegedly swindled by Biden in a “systemic, formulaic and Biblically-sized multi-billion dollar stock scheme” called “The China Hustle.” Caplan filed 64 pages of “exhibits” on Tuesday.
McSpadden recused himself before ruling on either motion.
Brent Langdon, Biden’s attorney, called Casey’s filing “a scheme by a non-party simply to make scandalous allegations” in a motion filed Monday.
Roberts said in her case filed in May that Biden fathered her child during a past relationship, which Hunter Biden initially denied and refused to submit for a paternity test. But after a DNA test proved Biden was indeed the father in November, he did not contest the paternity.
Roberts has asked the court to make Biden pay the $11,000 cost of her paternity case.
McSpadden’s order Tuesday didn’t provide a specific reason for his recusal, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.
“One of the clearest indicators of a judge’s integrity is when he or she recuses from a case,” Roberts’s attorney Clinton Lancaster said on the news. “It highlights the ethos and values that make the judiciary such a powerful, separate branch of government. Our client sincerely thanks Judge McSpadden for his time and attention to what has become a difficult and convoluted child support matter.”
According to Rule 2.11 of the Arkansas Code of Judicial Conduct, “A judge shall disqualify himself or herself in any proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”
