United States President Joe Biden said Sunday he had pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, in a reversal after he pledged to stay out of legal proceedings against the younger Biden, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion 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 in the decision-making of the Department of Justice, and I kept my word, even though I saw my son being selectively and unfairly treated. , prosecution was instituted,” the president said in a statement.
The White House has repeatedly said Biden would not pardon or commute the sentences of Hunter, a recovering drug addict who has been targeted by 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 only because he is my son,” Biden said in a statement released shortly before he left for a trip to Africa .
The clemency grant, Biden said, granted a “full and unconditional” pardon to Hunter Biden for any offenses in a window from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024.
Hunter Biden faced sentencing on the perjury and gun convictions this month. He pleaded guilty in September to federal charges that he failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes while 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 in the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that have been used to publicly humiliate and embarrass me and my political sports family,” Hunter Biden said in a statement Sunday, adding that he remained sober for more than five years.
“In the throes of addiction, I wasted many opportunities and advantages… I will never take for granted the leniency I have been given today and will dedicate the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”
Republicans criticized the president’s move.
“The pardon given by Joe to Hunter includes the J-6 hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such abuse and injustice!” Trump said in a post on the Truth Social website, referring to those convicted of storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, after Trump falsely claimed to have won the 2020 election.
“Joe Biden lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling,” 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 tried to crack down on Hunter with selective prosecution.
He said people were almost never brought to trial on felony charges for how they filled out a gun form, and he said others who delayed paying taxes because of addiction but got paid back with interest and penalties, like his son, usually didn’t get — criminal decisions on their cases.
“It’s clear Hunter was treated differently. The charges in his cases came only after several of my political opponents in Congress incited them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said. “In trying to break Hunter, they tried to break me—and there’s no reason to think it’s going to stop here. Enough is enough.”
In August 2023, Hunter Biden’s lawyers said prosecutors had backed out of a plea deal that would have resolved the tax and firearms charges. The president said in a statement Sunday that the plea deal “would be a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s affairs.”
Biden said he made his 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.
“Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I’ve struggled with it, I also believe that crude politics has tainted this process and led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made that decision this weekend, it just didn’t make sense to further delay,” Biden said.
“I hope the American people will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
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