Hunter Biden hasn't provided "specific discovery" as ordered by a judge in his Arkansas paternity case, according to a motion filed Friday in Independence County Circuit Court.
Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, is "playing games with this court," Jennifer Lancaster wrote in the motion for contempt to compel discovery and to modify the scheduling order.
Lancaster represents Lunden Roberts, who has a 4-year-old daughter.
The child, initially referred to in the case as "Baby Doe," was born in August 2018. A paternity suit followed in May 2019.
A DNA test showed, "with near scientific certainty," that Hunter Biden is the girl's father, Circuit Judge Holly Meyer declared in a January 2020 order. That month, the parties agreed on temporary child support until the issue was resolved.
In March 2020, Biden and Roberts reached an agreement to settle their paternity and child-support suit. His request to have his child support payments adjusted re-opened the case last year.
In December, Roberts' attorneys filed a motion to change the child's last name to Biden, saying "the Biden name is now synonymous with being well educated, successful, financially acute, and politically powerful."
[DOCUMENT: Read the motion to find Biden in contempt » arkansasonline.com/422hbiden/]
A four-page rebuttal by Biden's attorney demanded "strict proof thereof that such request is in the best interest of the child."
Discovery is the formal process of exchanging information between the parties about the witnesses and evidence they'll present at trial, according to the American Bar Association.
Meyer has scheduled a bench trial for July 24-25 in Batesville.
A pre-trial hearing has been set for May 23 in Heber Springs.
According to Friday's motion, Meyer entered a protective order so Biden "would fully answer discovery instead of constantly objecting and asserting the need for protection."
In a Feb. 22 hearing, the judge "entered a protective order from the bench and ordered that the defendant provide specific discovery which he had previously failed to do," according to Lancaster.
A written protective order was entered on March 27. Meyer ordered that "all information about or related to child support including affidavits of financial means is confidential information or confidential financial information and shall be sealed."
"In those two months [since Feb. 22], the defendant has provided no additional discovery -- not so much as one single item or word -- and has failed to supplement his answers at the court's directive," wrote Lancaster. "There is no valid excuse or justification for the defendant's failure to provide the required disclosures as the court has granted every single protective order the defendant has asked for since the inception of this case."
Biden is "engaging in vexatious litigation practices" that have forced Roberts to incur excessive attorney's fees, according to Lancaster. She wants Meyer to order Biden to pay Roberts' attorney's fees and costs "related to his conduct as detailed in this motion."
In an email Friday to attorneys and court officials, Clinton Lancaster, Jennifer Lancaster's law partner, wrote that Biden's attorney, Brent Langdon, had filed a proposed restraining order.
"I cannot view the motion, because Mr. Langdon filed it under seal," wrote Clint Lancaster. "I hope the motion has information about child support, because if it does not, it should be public as the order does not seal all information about this case."
Clint Lancaster wrote in the email that new court dates need to be set because of the delays, and he wants a new hearing.
"I would like for the hearing to be in person, and I would like for Mr. Biden to appear so I can ask him questions, under oath, about his motion and repeated failure to answer discovery," according to the email, which was filed in the court record.
Langdon didn't respond to an email from a reporter seeking comment.