The 73-year-old white-collar defense and trial attorney Abbe Lowell has been defending a sizable roster of high-profile Washingtonians, ranging from President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies to the president’s own family and inner circle. Lowell has challenged the overreach of federal agencies in every administration since Ronald Reagan’s, regardless of whether it’s a Democratic or Republican administration. This week, Lowell has been challenging the administration’s latest firings, including Lisa Cook, who Trump removed from her position as Federal Reserve Governor, and Susan Monarez, who was removed as CDC director after one month in office.
Cook and her legal team, which includes Lowell, filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s effort to fire her, calling the move “unprecedented and illegal.”
During a hearing on Cook’s attempted firing, Lowell said, “allegations of fraud have become the weapon of choice,” arguing that Trump is attempting to gain control of the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. Regarding Monarez’s ousting, Lowell and other lawyers stated that the CDC director was being “targeted” after she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.”
Three months after Trump took office for his second term, Lowell launched Lowell & Associates, aiming to represent individuals he says have been “unlawfully and inappropriately targeted” by the Trump administration. Lowell told MSNBC, reflecting on what he views as government overreach, “What President Trump and the people who carry out his mandate – it makes George Orwell’s ‘1984’ look like a mother goose nursery rhyme.
I mean, it is just beyond comprehension.”
Lowell’s new firm supports various individuals against whom the Trump administration has taken action, including Attorney General Letitia James, whose civil suit against Trump and his company initially resulted in a $454 million fraud penalty.
Lowell defends against Trump firings
However, the judgment was ultimately overturned by an appeals court last week.
In April, James was referred to the DOJ over mortgage fraud allegations, which she has denied. In addition to defending Hunter Biden, who was convicted last year on three federal gun-related charges and ultimately pled guilty to unrelated tax charges before being pardoned by his father, then-President Joe Biden, Lowell has represented Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump during the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. Under Lowell’s defense, Tom Barrack, a longtime Trump ally who ran his 2016 inaugural committee, and his real estate aide, Matthew Grimes, were acquitted in 2022 after being accused of foreign lobbying – a case that included mentions of Trump himself.
Lowell’s history of representation is diverse, spanning both sides of the political aisle. He served as Chief Minority Counsel to Congress during the impeachment proceedings of former President Bill Clinton and defended Democratic Senator Robert Menendez during his federal bribery case and Nevada’s Republican Governor Jim Gibbons during his FBI corruption investigation. The Columbia Law School graduate also worked in the Justice Department under the Carter administration and held positions such as Special Counsel to the House Ethics Committee and Special Counsellor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.
