High-profile Washington attorney Abbe Lowell, who is part of Hunter Biden's legal team, said Friday that explaining how his client received millions of dollars from foreign entities is "too complicated."
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Responsibility, has accused the Biden family and their business associates of receiving more than $20 million from foreign sources.
Comer has revealed evidence of allegations that not only was Hunter Biden paid $1 million a year as a board member of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma Holdings Ltd. without any experience in the energy sector, but that he and his father, who was vice president at the time, also received $5 million each from Burisma's chief executive for political protection and that Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina paid $3.5 million to a shell company created by Hunter Biden and Devon Archer.
"It's much more complicated than to say it comes from countries," Lowell said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "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. That's too complicated to try to explain.
"Over the time that he was in business — this is, again, something that people ought to pay attention to — Hunter Biden went to Georgetown University, went to Yale Law School, was on the board of directors at a bank, was on the board of directors of Amtrak, was someone who worked in an international law firm. People seem to forget this is not the person out there having people write checks for no reason. He's a capable, educated, experienced person."
Lowell said if Congress is questioning whether a person gets favorable opportunities with their last name, they should look at themselves. He mentioned Gayle Conelly Manchin, the wife of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who works on a commission that receives "an enormous amount of funds." He also mentioned Jayson Boebert, husband of Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., "who works in the consulting business."
But Gayle Connelly Manchin was appointed by the president as the co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, and Jayson Boebert reportedly was working as an energy consultant before his spouse — they are in the process of divorcing — was elected to Congress. And neither has been accused of violating any laws.
"If you start dissecting people who have the ability to use their connections and their name in order to get an opportunity, then, OK; but then what's good for the goose, good for the gander," Lowell said. "Congress should look at their own. People have been doing this for a millennia."