On Sunday, December 8th, President Joe Biden announced that he had pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, from his convictions of gun and tax crimes. This announcement comes soon after the victory of Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. However, Trump cannot rescind this pardon.
Hunter was convicted in June of lying on a gun-purchase form in 2018; he claimed that he was not illegally using drugs, which he was at that time.
Throughout Hunter’s case, the President had said previously that he would not pardon Hunter, saying in June that he would “rule out” pardoning him, according to CNN. Biden also said that he would accept the outcome of the trial, though that is now irrelevant as Hunter will not be sentenced due to the pardon.
Because the pardon grants clemency for any federal crime committed from January 1, 2014, to December 1, 2024, it also means that Hunter cannot be tried in the future for any of his controversial and potentially incriminating business deals in Ukraine (where he was on the board of a gas company) and China, for which he has faced scrutiny.
The cause of the pardon stems from the fact that Joe Biden feels Hunter has been unfairly prosecuted solely because he is Biden’s son, and that for others crimes similar to Hunter’s would not result in criminal charges. Biden said in a statement that Hunter was “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” and that “Hunter was treated differently” from people who commit similar crimes.
Biden also believes that pressure from his political opponents is a key reason for Hunter’s prosecution, saying in a statement that “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. … I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
