Biden pardons son Hunter on gun and tax crimes in bombshell U-turn decision
Joe Biden announced a presidential pardon for his troubled son Hunter on Sunday evening, calling his prosecution “selective” and “unfair.”
It goes against what Biden recently said in June, where he directly said, “I will not pardon him.”
“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Department of Justice’s decision-making, and I have kept my word even as I watched my son be selectively and unjustly prosecuted,” Biden said in a statement. declaration.
He claimed that people “are almost never brought to trial on a felony charge solely because of the way they filled out a gun form.”
“It’s clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
For months, the country wondered whether the president would pardon his failing son because of his convictions for federal gun and tax fraud.
The pardon covers both the gun charge and Hunter’s guilty plea.
Biden was scheduled to be sentenced on December 13 in the Delaware gun case and on December 16 in the California tax case.
Joe Biden will announce a presidential pardon for his troubled son Hunter on Sunday evening, a senior White House official has said
For months, the country wondered whether the president would pardon his failing son because of his federal gun and tax fraud convictions.
It goes against what Biden recently said in June, saying directly to the press: ‘I will not pardon him’
Biden and even Donald Trump have been heckled over the issue, with Trump suggesting this was not out of the question despite having railed against the First Son for years.
Abbe Lowell, a key member of 54-year-old Hunter’s legal team, had begun convincing his client’s press that he was a political prisoner.
“This is a seven-year story, propelled by an unrelenting political desire to use a son to hurt his father,” Lowell said.
Family pardons are not unheard of in presidential history. Before leaving office in January 2001, Bill Clinton granted brother Roger a controversial presidential pardon for a 1985 cocaine trafficking conviction.
Trump himself pardoned Charles Kushner, father of son-in-law and ex-adviser Jared, before leaving office in 2020. Yesterday, Kushner was appointed US ambassador to France.
Lowell has reiterated that the only reason Hunter is being convicted is for political gain for his father’s enemies.
“It is a wild and terrifying story that serves as a stark warning of what is to come as some of the same Republicans who targeted Hunter prepare to resume power and have declared their intention to use the administration’s enormous power to to pursue their perceived enemies,” Lowell told it the Washington Post.