US President Joe Biden said Sunday that he has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, a reversal after promising to stay out of legal proceedings against the younger Biden, who pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on charges related to firearms.
“Today I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the decision-making of the Department of Justice, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son be selectively and unfairly prosecuted.” , the president said in a statement.
The White House had repeatedly said Biden would not pardon or commute the sentences of Hunter, a recovering drug addict who became a target of Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump.
“No reasonable person looking at the facts of the Hunter cases can come to any conclusion other than that Hunter was singled out solely because he is my son,” Biden said in a statement issued shortly before leaving for a trip to Africa.
The grant of clemency, Biden said, provided a “full and unconditional” pardon to Hunter Biden for any crimes in a period from January 1, 2014 to December 1, 2024.
Hunter Biden was facing sentencing for false statements and firearms convictions this month. In September he pleaded guilty to federal charges for failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes and spending lavishly on drugs, sex workers and luxury goods. His sentencing was scheduled for December 16.
“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 Sunday, adding who had been sober for more than five years.
“In the midst of addiction, I squandered many opportunities and advantages…I will never take for granted the clemency I have been granted today and will dedicate the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”
Republicans criticized the president's move.
“Does Joe's pardon for Hunter include the J-6 hostages, who have been imprisoned for years? What an abuse and miscarriage of justice!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site, referring to those convicted of storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, after Trump falsely claimed he had won the 2020 election.
“Joe Biden has lied from beginning to end about his family's corrupt influence-peddling activities,” said Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
The president, whose son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015, said his opponents had tried to break Hunter with selective prosecution.
He said people were almost never brought to trial for felonies because of the way they filled out a weapons form, and he said others who fell behind on paying taxes because of addiction but returned them with interest and fines, as his son had done, they normally didn't receive money. -criminal resolutions to their cases.
“It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. The charges in his cases arose only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said. “In trying to break Hunter, they have tried to break me, and there is no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
In August 2023, Hunter Biden's lawyers said prosecutors had reneged on a plea deal that would have resolved tax and firearms charges. The president said in his statement Sunday that the plea deal “would have been a fair and reasonable resolution of Hunter's cases.”
Biden said he had made the decision to pardon over the weekend. The president, his wife, Jill Biden, and their family, including Hunter, spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and returned to Washington on Saturday night.
“This is the truth: I believe in the justice system, but while I have struggled with this, I also believe that crude politics has infected this process and led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, “There was no point in delaying it further,” Biden said.
“I hope Americans understand why a father and a president would make this decision.”
