Hunter Biden’s attorney decried the new charges against his client Friday, asserting that the president’s son was receiving unfair treatment over late taxes.
“[W]here’s the fairness, justice and decency in this?” Abbe Lowell said in an interview with CNN. “The charges in this new tax indictment talk about a period where Hunter was at the lowest ebb of his addiction. And like people in that regard, and I know everybody in America either has somebody in their family or friends who suffer from addiction, he certainly did things that he’s not proud of.”
“But wait, what happened since?” Lowell continued. “He got himself sober in 2019. And he paid all the taxes that are owed in this indictment more than two years ago with interest and penalties. Nobody in that position would be charged the way he was yesterday, nobody.”
Lowell made the comments one day after the younger Biden was indicted on new charges related tax crimes in California. The charges include three felony tax charges related to evasion and filing a false return and six misdemeanor charges for failure to pay taxes between 2016 and 2019.
“Hunter Biden engaged in a four-year scheme in which he chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019 and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns,” prosecutors wrote in a Thursday night press release.
The president’s son is already facing misdemeanor charges over his failure to pay taxes. A plea deal agreement fell through earlier this year where he would have pleaded guilty to those charges and entered a diversion program in connection with a gun crime.
He faces up to 17 years in prison upon conviction.
The new charges also come as President Biden and his family’s business dealings are under the microscope in the House.
Hunter Biden and his uncle, James Biden, were subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee last month. The committee is seeking depositions from Biden family members as it nears a vote on launching a formal impeachment inquiry into the president.
The House Oversight Committee made an attempt to get a closed-door deposition set for next week, but Lowell noted in a letter to committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), his concerns about how Republicans could “manipulate” the situation and proposed a public hearing for his client.
“We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public. We therefore propose opening the door,” Lowell wrote. “If, as you claim, your efforts are important and involve issues that Americans should know about, then let the light shine on these proceedings.”