President Joe Biden on Sunday night issued a full and unconditional pardon to Hunter Biden, arguing that he was singled out only because he was his son.
This spares the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing President Joe Biden’s past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family members.
It caps a long-running legal saga for the younger Biden, who publicly disclosed he was under federal investigation in December 2020 — a month after his father’s 2020 victory — and casts a pall over the elder Biden’s legacy. Biden, who time and again pledged to Americans that he would restore norms and respect for the rule of law after Trump’s first term in office, ultimately used his position to help his son, breaking his public pledge to Americans that he would do no such thing.
“For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: 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 Sunday night.
Hunter Biden was convicted early this year on federal gun and tax charges and was set to appear soon in Delon, California, where he faced the potential of lengthy prison sentences.
“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” Joe Biden said.
“Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a wapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gn 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,” said the president.
Biden said the charges in his cases came about only after several of his political opponents in Congress instigated them to atta3k me and oppose his election.
“Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases,” he said.
“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.
“There has been an effort to break Hunter who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting atta3ka and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough,” Joe Biden said.
