President Joe Biden announced on Sunday night that he will be issuing a pardon to his son Hunter ahead of the younger Biden’s sentencing date for federal gun and tax offenses, reversing the White House’s promise that the president would not pardon or commute his son’s sentence.
“Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. 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,” Joe Biden said in a statement.
Joe Biden went on to explain why he believes that Hunter was singled out for his last name and prosecuted during a time when congressional Republicans were investigating the Biden family’s foreign business dealings.
“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,” President Biden concluded.
Joe Biden’s pardon covers the time period from January 1, 2014 to December 1, 2024, relieving his son of any crimes he “may have committed or taken part in” over an 11 year period. Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings began in April 2014 during his father’s vice presidency.
“I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction,” Hunter Biden said in a statement.
“I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”
The move comes seven weeks before President Biden leaves the White House and President-elect Donald Trump returns to serve a second term. Before Joe Biden stepped aside from the presidential race, his son’s business dealings and legal issues became a political liability, as House Republicans investigated Hunter, and special counsel David Weiss prosecuted the gun and tax crimes.
The House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden investigated his son’s foreign business dealings during Joe Biden’s vice presidency as well as allegations of misconduct by Justice Department officials during the years-long criminal probe into Hunter Biden’s taxes.
The impeachment inquiry uncovered $27 million in payments made from foreign sources to Hunter Biden and his business associates between 2014 and 2019. Joe Biden’s meetings and calls on speakerphone with his son’s business partners were also part of the investigation.
Additionally, the allegations that Justice Department officials slow-walked and obstructed the Hunter Biden probe were largely confirmed through documents turned over by IRS whistleblowers and testimony from several top officials on the case. House Democrats often dismissed the impeachment inquiry and accuses Republicans of waging it for political purposes.
As the congressional investigation progressed, the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office and Hunter Biden agreed to a guilty plea for two tax misdemeanors and a pre-trial diversion agreement for a single gun felony. The deal fell apart last summer upon scrutiny from Delaware federal judge Maryellen Noreika, who took issue with a prosecutorial immunity clause in the diversion agreement.
Subsequently, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss to oversee the Hunter Biden case as special counsel. Weiss and his team prosecuted Hunter Biden on three federal gun charges in Delaware. In June, a jury found Hunter Biden guilty for falsely claiming he was not a drug addict on mandatory gun paperwork and for possessing a firearm while being addicted to crack cocaine.
At the same time, Weiss prosecuted Hunter Biden on nine federal tax charges in California for having failed to pay over $1.4 million in taxes in a timely manner over the last decade. The tax indictment against Hunter Biden last December painted a sordid picture of his lavish lifestyle and drug use, largely fueled by money he had made from overseas dealings.
In September, Biden plead guilty to the tax charges instead of facing another emotional and highly scrutinized criminal trial. His sentencing dates for the gun and tax charges were scheduled for later in December.
Noreika and California federal judge Mark Scarsi both rejected claims from Hunter Biden’s attorneys in pre-trial motions that he was the victim of selective prosecution by his father’s Justice Department.
While Hunter Biden was being prosecuted, the Justice Department was also prosecuting Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents and for his alleged role in the January 6 Capitol riot. Florida federal judge Aileen Cannon threw out the classified-documents case earlier this year, and special counsel Jack Smith dropped his appeal upon Trump’s election victory in November. Smith also dropped the D.C. case following Trump’s resounding win over Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement that did not directly address Joe Biden’s pardon of his son.
“That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people.”
Democrats often pointed to Hunter Biden’s legal troubles as an example of Democrats’ respect for the Justice Department’s independence in contrast with Trump’s frequent assertions that he was the target of political prosecutions.
Meanwhile, Republicans felt that accountability for the Biden family was long overdue and believed that federal law enforcement did everything it could to protect Hunter Biden, citing government pressure on social media companies to censor reporting on his business dealings leading up to the 2020 election.
As the Hunter Biden saga unraveled, the White House and the president’s son both said Joe Biden was not involved with his son’s business dealings, seeking to limit the political damage.
Joe Biden stepped aside from the presidential race over the summer because of a Democratic revolt over the octogenarian president’s declining mental fitness. With Joe Biden’s political career teetering on the brink, the president’s inner circle shrank to a few trusted staffers, and his son turned into his de facto chief of staff.
As recently as last month, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president did not plan on pardoning his son.
“We’ve been asked that question multiple times and our answer stands — which is no,” Jean-Pierre told reporters after Trump’s election victory, referring to the question of whether President Biden would pardon his son. Prior to that, Joe Biden had repeatedly insisted that he would not pardon his son and said he respected the Delaware jury’s decision.
Following the Thanksgiving holiday, Joe Biden’s next move after pardoning his son is a trip to Angola, limiting the press’s access to him to ask about the decision.