President Joe Biden Announces Pardon for Son Hunter Biden
President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he has pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who was facing sentencing this month for federal tax and gun convictions. The pardon is a “full and unconditional pardon” and cannot be rescinded by President-elect Donald Trump.
The pardon means that Hunter Biden will not be sentenced for his crimes and eliminates any chance that he will be sent to prison. The judges overseeing his cases will likely cancel the sentencing hearings, which were slated for December 12 in the gun case and December 16 in the tax case.
Hunter Biden was convicted by a jury in June of illegally buying and possessing a gun as a drug user, and pleaded guilty in September to nine tax offenses. His lawyers had argued that he was being targeted by overzealous prosecutors who caved to public pressure from Trump and congressional Republicans.
In a statement, President Biden said that he decided to issue the pardon because his son was “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” and that “Hunter was treated differently” from people who commit similar crimes. He also claimed that his political opponents in Congress “instigated” the charges “to attack me and oppose my election.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyers notified the judges in his criminal cases about the pardon and said in a sworn affidavit that he has accepted the pardon from his father. The pardon explicitly grants clemency for the tax and gun offenses from his existing cases, plus any potential federal crimes that Hunter Biden may have committed from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.
The pardon has been criticized by some, with Jeffrey Crouch, a leading expert on pardons, saying that “presidents should not use clemency to help out their friends, family and allies in order to further their own personal interest.” However, President Biden justified the pardon by pointing out that few people are charged with addiction-related gun offenses “without aggravating factors” and that many people who pay back all of their late taxes, like Hunter did, are allowed to revolve their problems through civil enforcement, instead of facing criminal charges.
This is the latest instance of an outgoing president using the pardon power to help a family member, following in the footsteps of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.
