As probes into Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings continue to heat up, news has emerged that one the high-profile criminal defense attorneys representing him was also the subject of Justice Department scrutiny for his prior work on behalf of a Chinese spy, as the Daily Mail reports.

Well-known lawyer Abbe Lowell, who joined Hunter Biden's legal team late last year, has reportedly provided representation for no fewer than three Chinese agents, and as a result, has faced prosecutors' questions about possible conflicts of interest and a potential need to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) according to the Mail.

Lowell's curious history

A review of court records and interviews indicates, as the Mail notes, that Lowell has a long record when it comes representing CCP-affiliated spies and operators, a fact which has raised eyebrows with opposing prosecutors on more than one occasion.

Specifically, documents secured by the outlet indicated that Lowell's work with agents attempting to lobby American officials prompted his receipt of a notice from the chief of the DOJ's FARA unit.

Some of Lowell's clients known to have raised red flags inside the federal government include Nickie Lum Davis, recently sentenced to prison for lobbying on behalf of China in corrupt scheme and Ng Lap Seng, a billionaire with strong ties to the Chinese government who reportedly funneled money to the Democratic National Convention by illegal means and was convicted in 2017 of bribing a United Nations official.

Despite the concerns raised by the Justice Department and subsequent interviews on the topic, Lowell has consistently maintained that no conflicts of interests existed and that he has not run afoul of registration requirements.

Longtime Democratic power player

Lowell has long been known in high-powered Democratic Party circles, having labored on behalf of former President Bill Clinton, former Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Bob Menendez, and more, as the New York Post notes.

Given that heady background, it is not particularly surprising that Hunter Biden retained his services as he continues to face a number of investigations, including one undertaken by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.

Kevin Morris, another of the first son's attorneys, explained at the time, according to NBC News, “Hunter Biden has retained Abbe Lowell to help advise him and be part of his legal team to address the challenges he is facing.”

“Lowell is a well-known Washington-based attorney who has represented numerous public officials and high-profile people in DOJ investigations and trials as well as congressional investigations. Mr. Lowell will handle congressional investigations and general strategic advice,” Morris added.

Strategy questioned

Lowell's representation of Biden thus far has also attracted a fair bit of criticism, given what many legal observers viewed as a bizarrely contradictory position taken by the lawyer earlier this year.

As the Daily Mail noted at the time, Lowell fired off a letter to the Justice Department demanding probes of Rudy Giuliani, former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, Delaware computer repair shop owner John Paul Mac Issac, and others in connection to the now-infamous laptop abandoned by his client.

In that communication, Lowell argued that the aforementioned individuals “violated various Delaware laws in accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden's personal computer data” from the aforementioned computer, despite repeated statements from his client, Biden surrogates, and others designed to cast doubt on whether the laptop even belonged to him.

Claiming that Biden's personal information was unlawfully exploited after months of denials meant to suggest that the computer containing it may not have been his was unusual tactic in the eyes of many.

Called out

While Lowell ultimately attempted something of a walk-back of what most saw as an admission of laptop ownership by Biden, a number of observers deemed the effort too little, too late.

The Post's Miranda Devine mused that what Lowell's letter to the DOJ actually conveyed was that “Hunter Biden admits infamous laptop is his. Not Russian disinformation, not a 'plant' as his father and 51 dishonest former intel officials pretended.”

Lambasting the strange about-face on the laptop question was former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who said, “You have literally had the Bidens lie about it – Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, the Biden administration, Biden White House officials, the Democratic Party, Democratic politicians, the left leaning media.”

Whether the curious legal moves Lowell has made to date or the recently surfaced questions about the propriety of some of his prior client relationships are enough to make Hunter Biden seek different representation as multiple investigations hang in the balance, however, only time will tell.