President Joe Biden issued a pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, the White House announced Sunday evening. The president claimed that the charges against his son were brought selectively and unfairly. President-elect Donald Trump responded to the pardon later Sunday night.
“Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” Biden said. “From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.”
A Delaware jury convicted Hunter Biden of three felony gun charges in June, and in September, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine tax offenses in Los Angeles federal court.
President Biden claimed none of the charges would have been prosecuted in normal circumstances.
“Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form,” the president added. “Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
“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,” the elder Biden added. “Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.”
“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 said. “There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
Biden concluded his statement by insisting that he has spent his “entire career” following “a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth.”
“They’ll be fair-minded,” he added. “Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision.”
Potential Hunter Biden corruption emerged in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, as Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute, released his book “Secret Empires.” Schweizer highlighted the fact that Hunter Biden reaped benefits in Ukraine and China while his father had served as the Obama administration’s point-man for Ukraine and had been involved in China diplomacy.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, investigated Hunter Biden extensively in the effort to impeach President Biden. While his committee did not file articles of impeachment as a result of the investigation, Comer decried what he called the Bidens’ corruption.
“History will show Joe Biden and his family were the most corrupt occupiers of the White House of any family in the history of America,” Comer told The Daily Signal at the time. “And a big footnote will be the investigative work that our committee did and made public.”
The president had previously said he would not pardon his son, nor commute his sentence.
President-elect Donald Trump responded to the news by asking about the Trump supporters found guilty for violating laws in and around the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” the president-elect asked. “Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
