Here’s a new one: First son Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell claimed Monday that his client was indicted because of his proximity to power — not in spite of it.
“It’s because he is the son of the president who’s named Biden,” Lowell told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in response to last week’s indictment of the 53-year-old handed up by a Southern California grand jury convened by special counsel David Weiss. “Republicans … have tried and tried to say that President Biden has done something wrong. They can’t find a shred of evidence.”
“What they’ve successfully done … is basically saying ‘OK, I can’t get the president, so I’ll besmirch his son in a way that suggests that there’s something going on between the two of them,'” Lowell added.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they reach back at a time that Hunter was in a stationery store when he was 11 and took a piece of bubblegum and see if they could charge that,” Lowell moaned about the charges.
The indictment filed Thursday accuses Hunter Biden of nine tax-related counts, including three felonies, in connection with dodging $1.4 million in payments owed to Uncle Sam between 2016 and 2019.
The first son is also facing three charges in Delaware related to alleged illegal possession of a firearm while addicted to crack cocaine and two tax misdemeanors previously featured in a plea deal that imploded back in July.
Republicans have argued, based on the testimony of two IRS whistleblowers, that the Justice Department displayed favoritism toward the first family by shutting down lines of inquiry and ignoring evidence that may have implicated the president.
Lowell argued Monday that Weiss had upped the charges against his client “not [because of] a change of the facts, not a change of the law, but the enormous pressure that was put on by Republicans from former President Trump to the chairpeople of House committees to demand that something more be done.
“That’s not the way it’s supposed to work.”
Lowell insisted that the first son was merely late on his taxes and suffered from drug addiction which was catalyzed by the death of his brother Beau in 2015 from brain cancer.
“As everybody knows, [he was] at the bottom of the barrel of his addiction to crack cocaine, which explains a lot of his misconduct, and also addresses whether he was in what they call a ‘scheme,'” Lowell said.
Weiss was elevated to special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland Aug. 11, shortly after a wrist-slap plea agreement for Hunter crumbled in Delaware federal court.
Even some Democrats such as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) have suggested they believe Hunter Biden’s behavior warranted prosecution.
Lowell further complained Monday that prosecutors did not inform the defense ahead of time that new charges were coming.
“They said nothing. Indeed, this was a complete surprise to us, notwithstanding we had been in contact with them,” Lowell further said before insisting that his client had suffered enough.
“He has extraordinary accountability,” the lawyer said. “Well first of all, he nearly died.”
“If the US attorney had followed through, and continued on what was supposed to happen in June, there would have been accountability,” he said. “It’s not on [Hunter] that anything happened bad after that day.”
House Republicans opened an impeachment inquiry into the president Sept. 12 to examine whether he improperly benefitted from his family’s foreign businesses.
Investigators have subpoenaed Hunter and first brother James Biden for closed-door interviews this month, but have yet to agree on a date for the sitdowns.
Lowell has offered up his client for public testimony, but Republicans have insisted on a deposition first.
“We will see how that goes because we will want Hunter to as he has indicated every pertinent and relevant question,” the attorney said, “but he should do so in a forum in which the people can hear the tactics of the Republicans.”