Hunter Biden's attorney claims nobody else would be indicted in the same situation as the First Son faces 17 years in prison for 'evading' $1.4M tax bill

Hunter Biden's attorney has spoken out to slam the tax evasion charges against the president's son, claiming that nobody similarly situated would be criminally charged. 

'Where's the fairness, justice and decency in this?' attorney Abbe Lowell said in an interview with CNN on Friday, after Hunter was hit with nine new charges carrying a penalty of up to 17 years in prison.

The 56-page indictment filed by Special Counsel David Weiss accuses Hunter of scheming to avoid $1.4 million in taxes he owed from 2016 through 2019, while spending lavishly on drugs, prostitutes, and an extravagant lifestyle.

'The charges in this new tax indictment talk about a period where Hunter was at the lowest ebb of his addiction,' said Lowell.

'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,' the lawyer argued. 

Hunter already faces separate firearm charges in Delaware, raising the possibility he could be headed toward trial in two different cases as his father, President Joe Biden, campaigns for re-election.

The charges against Hunter could add to the political complications for his father, President Joe Biden, who looks likely to face a close presidential race where Donald Trump is the leading contender for the GOP nomination. 

Criminal tax cases generally are very rare, Beverly Moran, a tax law expert at Vanderbilt University, told the Associated Press. 

The average American has almost as good a chance of winning the lottery as being criminally prosecuted for tax fraud, she said, based on 2021 data from the Internal Revenue Service. 

"Most people who commit tax fraud go through their entire lives without anything happening. They don't audited, they don't get caught, they don't get prosecuted," she said. "But if they get prosecuted, they get convicted."

Of the 665 cases that were referred for prosecution in 2021, about 90 percent resulted in a conviction, the IRS data shows.

Tax evasion can lead to jail time, however. Actor Wesley Snipes spent three years in prison after being convicted in 2008 of three misdemeanor counts of failing to file tax returns in a case where he owed about $7 million in back taxes.

Cases against celebrities and other high-profile people can also generate attention that helps convince other people to file their taxes on time, Moran said.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday predicted that Hunter would have to serve jail time, even if he inked a new plea deal.

Christie, who's running for the 2024 Republican nomination, spoke to NBC's Andrea Mitchell Friday afternoon.

'I'm sure that he could negotiate a plea at this point, but it's not going to be the kind of sweetheart deal he got before,' said Christie, a former federal prosecutor. '

And my guess is that with the combination of the gun charges and the tax charges that Hunter Biden is going to have to do time in jail.'

The White House has repeatedly insisted that President Biden would not pardon his son, a position that Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Friday has not changed.