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President Joe Biden has pardoned his son Hunter on federal charges of gun evasion and tax evasion.
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Hunter Biden pleaded guilty and was convicted of twelve charges, carrying a maximum sentence of up to 42 years.
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The pardon comes ahead of sentencing hearings scheduled for mid-December.
President Joe Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, on federal charges of gun evasion and tax evasion.
“Today I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” Biden said in a statement released Sunday. “From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Department of Justice’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I watched my son be selectively and unjustly prosecuted.”
Biden in his statement described the charges against his son as a strategy by his political opponents to attack his family and oppose his election. He was referring to a plea deal that collapsed last summer due to pressure from his opponents in Congress and evidence that the prosecution was politically motivated.
The statement continued: “No reasonable person looking at the facts of Hunter’s cases could come to any conclusion other than that Hunter was singled out solely because he is my son – and that is wrong. Efforts have been made to get Hunter – who is five and a half years sober, even in the face of brutal attacks and selective prosecution. In their attempts to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to think it will stop here.
In a series of high-profile cases, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to and was convicted of 12 charges carrying a maximum sentence of up to 42 years.
The tax evasion case stemmed from an investigation launched in 2018 during Donald Trump’s first administration by David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware whom Trump nominated. Although U.S. attorneys typically resign with each new presidential administration, the Justice Department under Biden asked Weiss to remain in his role, The Washington Post reported at the time.
Hunter Biden tried to plead guilty to two tax crime charges stemming from the investigation, but U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, another Trump nominee, rejected the deal last July.
The deal would have resulted in the younger Biden pleading guilty to two tax crimes, and prosecutors would have dropped potential weapons charges in exchange for Biden seeking treatment for substance abuse. Under the terms of the settlement, which Trump and other Republicans criticized as a sweetheart deal, Hunter Biden would not have to spend time in jail.
After the plea deal fell apart, prosecutors charged Hunter Biden in September 2023 with three gun charges, including lying on a gun purchase form by indicating he was not using illegal drugs even though he was not sober and possessing the gun in violation of laws preventing that people who use drugs own firearms.
The president’s son was ultimately convicted by a federal jury on gun charges in June 2024 and pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges in September 2024 before jury selection for the trial was set to begin.
The pardon comes ahead of sentencing hearings in both cases, scheduled for mid-December.
Joe Biden had previously – and repeatedly – insisted that he would not use his pardon power to protect Hunter Biden from the verdicts in his cases. He addressed his change of heart in his statement, saying politics has “contaminated” the justice system.
“Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I struggled with this, I also believe that raw politics has infected this process and led to a miscarriage of justice – and when I made this decision this weekend, there was no feel like delaying it further,” Joe Biden’s statement said. “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision.”
This is a development story; check back for updates.
Read the original article on Business Insider
