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On Sunday night, President Biden reneged on previous statements in which he pledged not to pardon his son Hunter Biden who was scheduled to be sentenced this month on separate federal gun and tax evasion convictions. Biden issued a “full and unconditional pardon” for any offenses his son has “committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”
In June, Biden had told reporters that he would not pardon his son after a jury found the latter guilty of three federal gun charges. Spokespersons for the president echoed that sentiment when recently asked whether the president’s position had changed.
“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,” Biden said in his statement announcing the pardon.
Biden also implied that his political opponents were using the cases as means to further their own political goals and undermine the president himself.
“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,” Biden added. “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.”
Hunter Biden faced up to 17 years in federal prison for tax evasion, and could have faced up to a 25-year sentence for the federal gun charges.
Many lawmakers were quick to attack the president over his apparent hypocrisy in pardoning his son, including several GOP lawmakers from Alabama.
“This is yet another blatant broken promise by President Biden and exemplifies why he has been the most unpopular president in modern U.S. history. From concerned parents at school board meetings to President Trump, the Biden Administration has spent four years weaponizing the justice system to target its political adversaries,” U.S. Sen. Katie Britt wrote in an official press release.
“But President Biden sees one victim of lawfare: his own family. This blanket pardon is a self-serving slap in the face to everyday Americans and is an example of the type of two-tiered justice that the American people are sick of,” Britt continued. “The incoming Trump Administration has an electoral mandate to get politics out of the DOJ and restore blind justice under the law. President Trump has nominated a cabinet that is eager to fulfill that mandate and transparently deliver the change that hardworking American families want. I look forward to ensuring the Trump Administration can hit the ground running to accomplish these goals. January 20 can’t come soon enough.”
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, quote tweeted an old post from the president’s X account, which read “No one is above the law” in reference to president-elect Donald Trump’s own legal troubles.
“What he meant to say is, ‘No one is above the law, except for my son Hunter Biden and the millions of illegal immigrants I let pour across our open border,”’ Moore replied.
“It’s no surprise Biden would pardon his son Hunter,” said U.S. Rep. Dale Strong, R-Huntsville. “The Biden family, the Democrat Party, and the deep state have never gone by the same rules as the rest of America. Once again, Biden’s repeated promises not to pardon his son were just more lies to the American people.”
“President Biden said he would not pardon his son. But I think we all knew he ultimately would. And we were right,” U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, tweeted.
U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Hoover, was part of the congressional investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings. Palmer called Biden’s pledge to not intervene in his son’s legal cases “just another empty promise” and repudiated Biden’s implication that his son was being targeted because of his immediate connection to the president.
“Unlike the Democrats’ baseless pursuit against President Trump, our investigation into Hunter Biden was not politically motivated. This sweeping pardon proves there is something to hide,” Palmer wrote on X.
The House Republican investigation into allegations of corruption among President Biden and his family has repeatedly produced little-to-no evidence of wrongdoing. Fraught with mishaps and unsubstantiated claims, the nearly year-long GOP impeachment inquiry failed to see the president formally charged with corruption or mishandling classified documents.
While Republican lawmakers are clearly opposed to Biden framing his son’s federal charges as some form of political persecution, President-elect Trump has repeatedly made similar comments in the past, accusing any legal action against him as being part of a political “witch-hunt.”
Also important to note, Trump himself has made concerning moves that could undermine the rule of law.
For instance, Trump initially selected U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-FL, as his nominee for the head of the DOJ. Gaetz has no prior legal experience and has been the subject of a House Ethics Commission investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, accepting improper gifts, and obstruction. Witnesses involved in the investigation claim to have witnessed Gaetz having sex with a minor.
Many saw Gaetz’s nomination as a way for Trump to protect a close ally from criminal charges. Additionally, Gaetz had previously made it clear that he was in favor of legally persecuting Trump’s political rivals and supporting those who were imprisoned for their involvement Jan. 6, 2020 insurrection at the Capitol. Trump himself has previously promised to appoint a special counsel to “go after” Biden once he returns to office. He has also praised those involved in the Jan. 6 riots, and has said that he would “absolutely” pardon some, if not all, of them.
The president-elect has also indicated that he might take the unprecedented move of pardoning himself of crimes once he returns to office. Earlier this year, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York. He also faces additional cases related to the events of Jan. 6 and his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results — those cases are now in various states of limbo following his electoral victory.
