Hunter Biden has narrowly avoided the inside of a jail cell. It was announced Tuesday that he had reached a deal with the mother of his child, Lunden Roberts, over their outstanding discovery issues. Attorneys for both parties announced they had settled the issues they had planned to discuss in court. …

The two had been scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, but they announced they had reached an agreement and that the hearing was unnecessary.

Roberts’ attorney, Clint Lancaster, had filed a motion last week that sought “civil contempt of incarceration until such time as the defendant fully answers discovery and to be paid for her attorney’s fees and costs,” and $20,000 in lawyer fees.

[I’m skeptical that Biden would have been jailed for contempt over this issue, but the judge could well have ordered him to pay the attorney fees involved in seeking compliance with pretrial discovery. That was probably enough incentive to force a deal, but it shouldn’t have come to that in the first place. — Ed]