Hunter Biden is blaming President Trump for his father’s decision to grant him one of the most sweeping pardons in American history.
Hunter Biden finally addressed the pardon in an interview with journalist Tommy Christopher and claimed Trump’s victory in November 2024 inspired his father, then–President Joe Biden, to pardon him the following month.
“Donald Trump went and changed everything,” Hunter Biden said. “And I don’t think that I need to make much of an argument about why it changed everything.”
If Trump had not won the election, Hunter Biden does not believe his father would have pardoned him. Instead, Hunter thinks he would have won in the appeals process.
“My dad would not have pardoned me if President Trump had not won, and the reason that he would not have pardoned me is because I was certain that in a normal circumstance of the appeals [I would have won],” the younger Biden argued.
Hunter Biden also suggested he would have been an easy target for Trump to get revenge against his father if he were not pardoned. In addition to Hunter, Joe Biden pardoned several other members of his family right before leaving office.
Before the pardon, Hunter Biden was set to be sentenced on federal tax charges in California and gun charges in Delaware. He pleaded guilty to the tax charges after being convicted on the gun charges at the conclusion of a high-profile trial.
Joe Biden’s sweeping pardon spared Hunter the legal consequences of all criminal activity he may have committed from January 2014 to December 2024, which covered the entire period of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and sordid misadventures during a time of drug addiction.
Then–President Biden repeatedly promised not to pardon his son because of his faith in the justice system. The sweeping pardon drew widespread outrage from both sides of the aisle because Joe Biden went back on his word and let his son off the hook for federal crimes.
The pardon put an end to a saga that regularly made headlines in the final two years of Biden’s presidency. Hunter Biden’s business dealings and legal issues were the basis of the House GOP’s drawn-out impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
The GOP lawmakers found $27 million worth of payments from foreign individuals and businesses to Hunter Biden and his associates during and after Joe Biden’s vice presidency. Ukraine, China, and Romania were the main sources of the money.
When discussing the pardon, Hunter Biden acknowledged his privileged position and defended his father’s rationale.
“I realize how lucky I am; I realize that I got something that almost no one would have gotten,” Hunter said.
“But I’m incredibly grateful for it, and I have to say that I don’t think that it requires me to make much of a detailed argument for why it was the right thing to do, at least from my dad, from his perspective.”
Hunter Biden did not mention any potential role he might have played in the pardon. Last month, former Biden White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients testified that Hunter was involved in the pardon discussions and sat in on a few meetings at the end of his father’s term, as NR previously reported.
Zients’s testimony contradicted Hunter’s claims in a July podcast interview that he had little involvement in the Biden administration and did not become his father’s de facto chief of staff as his political career fell apart.
Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July 2024 after Democrats revolted against him over his worsening mental acuity. Hunter Biden has strongly criticized Democrats for their disloyalty to his father and believes that is why Democrats performed poorly in the 2024 election.