Former CNN host Don Lemon retained a high-priced attorney familiar with defending clients against the Trump administration following his arrest related to his involvement in a protest at a St. Paul, Minnesota, church.
Lemon is being represented by Abbe Lowell, an attorney well known for taking on cases where a prominent political figure needs legal help; most notably Hunter Biden.
Biden, the surviving son of former President Joe Biden, is Lowell’s most visible recent client. The younger Biden has been one of the Trump administration’s top foils, and Lowell guided the 55-year-old author, businessman and recovering addict through a web of legal problems largely centered in his home state of Delaware.
After Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles, where he was preparing to cover an awards show for his podcast, Lowell confirmed his client was taken into custody late Thursday and said that, as a journalist, his ‘constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done.’
Lowell slammed the Justice Department for pursuing Lemon instead of federal immigration agents involved in law enforcement shootings of alleged agitators Renee Good and Alex Pretti in recent days.
‘This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.’
During Biden’s tax and gun-charge case, Lowell often spoke out pointedly in defense of his client.
‘Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought,’ Lowell said, while also accusing Delaware federal prosecutor David Weiss of bowing to pressure from the Republican Party in pursuing the case.
Amid a countersuit against Delaware computer repairman John Paul Mac Isaac, Lowell wrote to the Justice Departments in Washington and Dover, also calling for investigations into former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Breitbart editor Steve Bannon over the laptop fiasco.
During scrutiny of Biden’s lucrative globe-trotting, Lowell depicted his client as the beloved remaining son of a doting father, saying that when ‘the President calls his son every day and it goes on the speakerphone, he says ‘hello’ to the people in the room. That is not an offense, that is nothing other than a loving father.’
Biden later, however, retained high-powered attorney and South Carolina State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Charleston, in a separate defamation case against Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. Harpootlian had just represented Low Country legal eagle–turned–convicted killer Richard ‘Alex’ Murdaugh.
Besides Biden and Lemon, Lowell has represented imprisoned former Sen. Robert Menendez Sr., D-N.J., during his 2017 corruption investigation that ended in a mistrial.
He also defended former Sen. John Edwards, the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee in 2004, as the scandal-plagued Carolinian fought allegations that he used $1 million in campaign donations to hide a mistress and child.
Then-Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., who was a person of interest in Chandra Levy’s disappearance; Federal Reserve Board Gov. Lisa Cook, who has been fighting attempted firing by the Trump administration; and lobbyist Jack Abramoff all counted Lowell as a legal defender.
He also represented first daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, during a 2016 election-season probe into alleged Russian interference.