![MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski grilled Hunter Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, on the president's son's new charges. [Screenshot MSNBC]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Screenshot-2023-12-11-at-10.22.45-AM-e1702308223848.png "MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski grilled Hunter Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, on the president's son's new charges. [Screenshot MSNBC]")
MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski grilled Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, on the president’s son’s new charges.
Hunter was indicted in California by a grand jury of nine counts related to his alleged failure to pay over $1 million worth of taxes over a four-year period. Hunter is charged with three felonies and six misdemeanors including failure to pay taxes and failure to file taxes. The indictment lays out Hunter’s business dealings with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, a Romanian oligarch previously thought to be Gabriel Popoviciu and Chinese infrastructure company CEFC.
Brzezinski asked whether Hunter is taking accountability for any of the charges.
“At the same time, Hunter has written a book on his struggles with addiction. He has written a book on laws that he has broken, doing cocaine, whatever, we can Mae the list. I’m just curious, does your client have any accountability in these charges?” (RELATED: White House Reveals Whether Joe Biden Will Pardon Son Hunter In Light Of New Charges)
“Hunter, like millions and millions of Americans —” Lowell began.
“I understand.”
WATCH:
“He has extraordinary accountability. I mean, first of all, he nearly died,” Lowell said before arguing that Hunter has acknowledged that addiction made him squander opportunities. Lowell then said there would have been accountability in June but the plea deal was tossed out.
“But did he file a false return? I’m ending where I started. It’s a yes or no,” Brzezinski asked.
“It’s not a yes or no because you want to drill –” Lowell said.
“It’s not?” Brzezinski shot back.
“No, of course it’s not. In order to file a false return that’s actionable the following things depending on the statue has to occur, it has to be willful, it has to be deliberate, it has to be knowing, it has to be in a year in which there is a tax deficiency. I will point out for now that in California, the serious charges they filed are in 2018. I don’t think the government will be able to prove in any way that Hunter owed taxes in that year. So you can’t ask a yes-or-no question on a complex area of law. What you can say is Hunter was late in filing and paying taxes in certain years. That is a given as are millions and millions of Americans who do the same thing. are not then confronted with a 56-page, nine-count indictment.”
Watch Lowell defended Hunter by saying people have been using family names and connections to gain opportunities “for millennia”:
Hunter was originally slated to accept a plea deal until U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Delaware, Maryellen Noreika, derailed it when she questioned the legal teams over the immunity provision inside the pretrial diversion agreement. Prosecutor for the Department of Justice, Leo Wise, admitted to Noreika the clause had no precedent.