President Joe Biden had long pledged that he would not pardon his son, Hunter. Already convicted, the younger Biden was set to be sentenced this month. On Sunday, the President reversed course and pardoned him.
Under English law, a king could grant mercy to anyone. The legal tradition, known as clemency, came to the American colonies and stuck. The U.S. Constitution says a president has the power to grant clemency. That includes both outright pardons and sentence reductions.
Presidents use that authority a lot. President Donald Trump used it 237 times during his four years in office. President Barack Obama used it 1,927 times in eight years. Presidents have granted clemency for drug crimes, fraud, draft dodging, and many more offenses.
President Biden isn’t the first U.S. president to use his pardon powers to benefit people close to him. President Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in law. And President Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton after a prison term for drug charges.
In June, a jury convicted Hunter Biden of lying on a federal form when he purchased a gun in 2018. Hunter Biden had falsely sworn he wasn’t a drug user. Months later, he pleaded guilty to trying to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes.
Hunter Biden’s sentencing for both cases was scheduled for this month. The tax charges carried up to 17 years behind bars. The gun charges could have meant up to 25 years in prison.
President Biden’s sweeping pardon covers his son’s convictions in those cases. It also includes any other “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in” during the last 10 years.
The President had said after his son’s conviction in June that he would accept the outcome and “continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.” He said, “I abide by the jury decision. . . . I will not pardon him.”
But in his statement on Sunday, President Biden claimed his son had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.”
“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,” the President wrote.
President Biden’s legal team asked judges handling the gun and tax cases to immediately dismiss them because of the pardon.
Special Council David Weiss’ legal team is opposing the dismissal. The team pushes back on the claim that the cases were tainted by politics.
The prosecution admits “the defendant has been the recipient of an act of mercy.” But the team adds, “That does not mean the grand jury’s decision to charge him . . . should be wiped away as if it never occurred. It also does not mean that his charges should be wiped away because the defendant falsely claimed that the charges were the result of some improper motive or selective prosecution.”
No one doubts Hunter Biden has broken numerous laws. He has admitted to them. And he is accused of more illegal acts. This pardon means that he will escape punishment for all of them.
Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God. — Ecclesiastes 8:12
