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US President Joe Biden has pardoned his son Hunter, sparing the younger Biden possible prison time on federal felony and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the president’s extraordinary powers to benefit his family members.
The Democratic president had previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence after being convicted in both cases in Delaware and California. The move comes weeks before Hunter Biden is scheduled to be sentenced after his gun conviction and guilty plea to tax fraud, and less than two months before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
It sets up a long-running legal saga for the president’s son, who publicly disclosed in December 2020 — a month after Joe Biden’s 2020 victory — that he was the subject of a federal investigation and cast doubt on the elder Biden’s legacy. Biden, who after Trump’s first term repeatedly promised Americans to restore normality and the rule of law, ended up using his position to help his son, breaking his public promise to Americans that he would do no such thing. .
In June, Biden flatly ruled out pardoning or commuting his son, telling reporters that his son was scheduled to stand trial in a Delaware gun case: “I submit to the jury’s decision. I’m going to do it and I’m not going to pardon him.”
As recently as Nov. 8, White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre ruled out a pardon or clemency for the younger Biden, saying, “We’ve been asked that question several times. Our answer is no.”
WATCH | Republicans, Democrats use Hunter Biden’s conviction to score political points:
US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden has been convicted of three gun charges. He is the first child of a US president to be convicted of a crime, and both Republicans and Democrats have used the moment to make points about the state of the justice system.
In a statement released Sunday night, Biden said, “Today I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” arguing that his son’s prosecution was politically motivated and a “miscarriage of justice.”
“The charges in his cases only came after several of my political opponents in Congress urged them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said. “No reasonable person looking at the facts of Hunter’s case can come to any conclusion other than that Hunter was singled out simply because he is my son.”
“I hope the American people will understand why the father and the president came to this decision,” Biden added, saying he made the decision this weekend. The president had spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Nantucket, Massachusetts, with Hunter and his family.
Hunter was convicted in June in federal court in Delaware of three felonies for purchasing a gun in 2018, when prosecutors said he lied on a federal form, claiming he was not an illegal drug user or addict.
WATCH | Republicans accuse Twitter of suppressing Hunter Biden’s story:
Former Twitter executives accused of suppressing negative content about U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden were blasted by Republican lawmakers in a combative hearing that showed the GOP is making good on its promise to investigate Biden and his family.
He was scheduled to stand trial in September in the California case, which accuses him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. But he agreed to plead guilty to the felony charges in a surprise move hours after jury selection began.
Hunter Biden said he is pleading guilty to the case to spare his family more pain and embarrassment after a gun trial aired sordid details about his battle with crack cocaine addiction.
The charges carry up to 17 years behind bars, and the weapons charges are punishable by up to 25 years in prison, though federal sentencing guidelines called for much less time and it was possible he would avoid prison altogether.
The broad pardon applies not only to those offenses but also to any other “criminal offenses against the United States that he committed or may have committed or participated in between January 1, 2014 and December 1, 2024.”
WATCH | Hunter Biden denies his China-Ukraine deals were unethical:
Hunter Biden, the son of US presidential candidate Joe Biden, says that while his family has helped him get opportunities, he denies any unethical behavior in his involvement in overseas work in Ukraine and China.
Biden is hardly the first president to use his pardon power to benefit those close to him.
In his final weeks in office, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as several allies convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Trump announced this week that he plans to appoint the elder Kushner as the US ambassador to France in his next administration.
Hunter Biden said in an email that he would never take his relief for granted and vowed to dedicate his renewed life “to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”
“I have acknowledged and taken responsibility for my mistakes in the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that were used to publicly humiliate and embarrass me and my family for political sport,” the younger Biden said.
A spokesman for Special Counsel David Weiss, who prosecuted the cases, did not return messages seeking comment Sunday evening.
