Hunter Biden's defense attorney Abbe Lowell dismissed questions about his client's past lucrative business dealings on Friday during a TV interview, indicating that the concept of joint ventures with foreign entities was "too complicated" to explain.
Lowell, who has defended high-profile politicians such as President Bill Clinton and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), said that President Joe Biden's son may be receiving tougher legal treatment than the average person because of his last name.
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The remarks by Lowell came in response to questions from MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough about the federal and congressional investigations into Hunter Biden.
Scarborough broached a fact-check story detailing how the younger Biden received roughly $7 million through his business endeavors over the last decade or so.
"Well, stop with your $7 million and talk about how many years that Hunter has been in business and what happened in each of those specific years," Lowell said. "When you say it that way, people think someone just sent him a check for $7 million on April 1."
When pressed on the details of the $7 million figure, such as how many countries the money originated from, Lowell responded that "it's much more complicated than to say it comes from countries."
"There are joint ventures between American entities and, in one or two occasions, a potential foreign entity to create the possibility of jobs and energy in the United States," Lowell continued. "That’s too complicated to try to explain."
He then moved on to listing out Hunter Biden's credentials, such as his attendance at Yale Law School and positions on boards of directors for a bank and for Amtrak, contending that the younger Biden was qualified to be involved in overseas ventures.
Hunter Biden was set to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and enter into a pretrial diversion agreement to avoid a felony gun charge following a nearly five-year federal investigation, but questions from a judge in July about what she called "unusual" provisions of the deal resulted in it unraveling. The younger Biden may now be headed for trial depending on how special counsel David Weiss proceeds with prosecuting him.
Asked about criticisms from Republicans in Congress, including House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY), that Hunter Biden had been poised to receive a "sweetheart" plea deal because of his father, Lowell responded that "literally millions of Americans" also fail to file their taxes or file them late with no legal punishment.
"For those who would say, 'Oh, this was some sort of sweetheart deal,' they should really look at the statistics and see how he was charged when others would not be," Lowell said.
The Oversight Committee, in coordination with the Judiciary Committee and Ways and Means Committee, has been investigating financial transactions among Biden family members and the federal prosecution of Hunter Biden, which two IRS whistleblowers say was handled unfairly.
Part of their inquiry involves vetting an FBI FD-1023 form they uncovered that contains damning allegations from an FBI informant that Joe and Hunter Biden accepted millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for Joe Biden, then vice president, using his authority to help a Ukrainian energy company.
Republicans have scoured financial transactions, conducted numerous interviews, and held hearings on the matter, but they have not called Hunter Biden in to testify.
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Lowell said on Friday that that prospect was "premature."
He said, "You have to have a serious congressional proceeding in order to consider having somebody like your client come, and there's been nothing serious about this set of proceedings."