WASHINGTON — Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Sunday night, reversing his previous stance that he would not use his executive authority to pardon his son or commute his sentence.
“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice — and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further,” Biden said in a statement.
The pardon applies to any offenses Hunter Biden has “committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024,” according to the White House.
Hunter Biden was scheduled to be sentenced on December 12 for his conviction on federal gun charges and December 16 for his plea of guilty to federal tax evasion charges.
Biden also spoke about his son’s struggles with addiction in his statement, saying that his political opponents were trying to “break” him by going after Hunter. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” he said.
Hunter Biden also released a statement, saying he had “admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.”
Despite the controversy surrounding his son, Biden said he would not pardon him, saying “I will not pardon him,” in June. However, the president has discussed pardoning his son with some of his closest aides, and it was decided at the time that he would publicly say he would not pardon his son even though doing so remained on the table.
The pardon power allows the president to commute sentences and grant pardons, and Biden is using this power to ensure that Hunter Biden does not spend time in jail as he nears the end of his term in the White House and has no future election to face.
