President Joe Biden signed a sweeping pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, reversing his previous stance that he would not use his executive powers to aid his oldest-living child.
Biden justified the pardon by saying that the case against his son was politically tinged, excessive and designed to "break" him and Hunter. Biden issued the statement as he was set to leave for Africa.
"The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election," Biden said in a written statement on Sunday. "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."
Biden's move marks a stunning decision by an outgoing president, coming just weeks before he is set to leave office and President-elect Donald Trump is set to take power.
Trump has pardoned people close to him and has vowed to pardon those convicted of involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol in his second term. Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, his daughter Ivanka's father-in-law, in his first term and nominated Kushner recently as U.S. ambassador to France.
Trump assailed the president's decision
"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!," Trump wrote. not supported.
Biden and the White House have repeatedly said that the president would not pardon his son, who was found guilty of gun charges by a federal court in Delaware earlier this year, becoming the first child of a sitting U.S. president to be convicted of crimes. His sentencing in that case was set for Dec. 12.
Those denials have come as recently as November, when White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, "That's not what we're going to do," when asked about the possibility of a pardon or commutation.
The younger Biden, 54, also pleaded guilty in a separate felony tax case in September.
"I have 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," Hunter Biden said in a statement. "I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering."
Hunter Biden's legal team filed motions in courts in Delaware and Los Angeles, where he was subject to charges in a separate alleged tax evasion case, notifying them of the pardon and saying the cases must now be dismissed.
The president's pardon, first reported by NBC News, is broad, covering not only criminal acts which Hunter Biden has been convicted of but other potential legal challenges that may await.
The "full and unconditional pardon" Biden signed for his son covers "those 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, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted."
Hunter Biden's lawyer Abbe Lowell did not immediately respond to requests for comment and the U.S. Department of Justice's special prosecutor David Weiss declined to comment.
Republican criticism
Hunter Biden's legal problems have posed a political and personal challenge for the president — particularly during his reelection bid. Republicans have investigated the younger Biden over his business dealings, accusing him of using his connections to his father to illegally benefit their family. There has been no solid evidence that the president has benefitted from his son's misdeeds. There has been no connection made to President Biden's political activities and Hunter Biden's business dealings.
Still, the younger Biden's legal woes dogged his father's campaign and undercut efforts by Democrats to hammer Trump over his own criminal cases, including becoming the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony over hush-money payments to an adult film star.
Trump and fellow Republicans have accused Biden without evidence of orchestrating the criminal indictments against the president-elect.
The Trump team seized on Biden's suggestions that the case was politically motivated as confirmation of their longstanding claims about the Justice Department.
"The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system," Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement Sunday. "That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans."
The pardon announcement drew quick condemnation from Republican lawmakers, including Representative James Comer, whose House Oversight Committee has been investigating the Biden family's business practices, but has yet to find any evidence of wrongdoing by the president.
"It's unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability," Comer wrote in a post on X.
Hunter Biden faced the threat of significant time in prison. Two of the gun counts carry maximum prison time of 10 years; the third is punishable by up to five years. He faced as much as 17 years in prison for the tax charges. Judges, however, rarely impose maximum sentences.
