President Joe Biden reversed his long-said stance on Sunday that he would not pardon his son Hunter Biden.
The president issued the executive grant of clemency absolving his son for not only his convictions on gun and tax charges but any other “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”
Earlier this year, the president told reporters, “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.” The statements were made before Joe Biden dropped his bid for reelection, The Associated Press reported
The elder Biden, in the order, wrote, “I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
He noted that a plea deal “unraveled in the court room” blaming “political opponents in Congress.”
The president called his son’s convictions a “miscarriage of justice,” ending the statement, “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
Hunter Biden was convicted earlier this year of lying on a federal form to buy a gun in 2018, saying that he was not using drugs. In a separate case, the president’s son pleaded guilty to not paying $1.4 million in taxes while spending his money on strippers and luxury hotels, the AP reported
Hunter Biden entered the guilty plea after the gun trial brought his private life into the spotlight. He said he did not want to put his family through another embarrassing trial. It would have more than likely brought to the forefront Hunter Bident’s foreign dealings that the Republicans said show corruption by the president’s family.
The president’s son was supposed to be sentenced this month in both cases. He faces up to 17 years in prison on the tax charges and another 25 years in prison on the gun charges, but was likely to get less jail time if any, the AP reported.
Politico said the pardon was more sweeping than any other presidential pardon since Gerald Ford gave former President Richard Nixon a blanket pardon in 1974.
“I have never seen language like this in a pardon document that purports to pardon offenses that have not apparently even been charged, with the exception of the Nixon pardon,” Margaret Love who was a pardon attorney for the Justice Department Politico reported.
Several conservative pundits have speculated over the years that Hunter Biden could face other charges such as bribery, illegal lobbying and even drug-related charges. The date Jan. 1, 2014, cited in the pardon is only four months before Hunter Biden became a member of the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas company while Joe Biden was vice president, Politico noted.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys notified the judges overseeing the case of the pardon, which their client said in a sworn affidavit he accepted, CNN reported.
The attorneys in court filings wrote that the pardon “requires dismissal of the Indictment against him with prejudice and adjournment of all future proceedings in this matter,” according to CNN.
A president does have the ability to grant clemency which covers both pardons and commutations, the AP reported. The power can only be granted for breaking federal law, not state charges. It can also not be used for an impeachment conviction.
This is not the first time a president pardoned a family member. President-elect Donald Trump pardoned his son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner, whom he selected over the weekend to be the U.S. envoy to France. President Bill Clinton pardoned his brother Roger Clinton’s drug conviction prison term.
Trump will not be able to rescind the pardon when he takes office in January, Politico reported.
Trump spoke out on Truth Social, writing, “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice,” Fox News reported.
Trump has promised to pardon many of those convicted of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Politico reported.
“It justifies what Trump wants to do,” lawyer Samuel Morison, told the publication. “Now, he was going to do it anyway. But it gives him some political cover. I think some January 6 pardons are probably coming — at least some, maybe all.”
©2024 Cox Media Group
