The pardon, per a White House announcement, relates to any offenses against the country that Hunter Biden ‘has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from Jan. 1, 2014 through Dec. 1, 2024.’
By JNS
U.S. President Joe Biden stated on Sunday night that he hopes Americans will understand why he, as “a father and a president,” decided to pardon his son Hunter Biden.
“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,” Biden stated.
“Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form,” the president said.
“Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
Biden and his administration have previously issued very strong statements about gun control and the importance of holding offenders accountable for gun crimes.
The pardon, per a White House announcement, relates to any offenses against the country that Hunter Biden “has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from Jan. 1, 2014 through Dec. 1, 2024.”
Those include but are “not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions) by Special Counsel David C. Weiss in Docket No. 1:23-cr-00061-MN in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware and Docket No. 2:23-CR-00599-MCS-1 in the United States District Court for the Central District of California,” the president added.”
Less than a month ago, a reporter asked Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, during a Nov. 8 press briefing about a potential pardon. “His son, Hunter, is also up for being sentenced next month,” the reporter said. “Does the president have any intention of pardoning him?”
“We’ve been asked that question multiple times,” Jean-Pierre said. “Our answer stands, which is no.”
“Everybody in America knew this day was coming,” wrote Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.).
David Greenfield, CEO of the Met Council, wrote that the pardon was “understandable. But now as Democrats, we certainly have no moral high ground for any of the Trump pardons that Democrats objected to.”
The “timing for the Biden pardon of Hunter couldn’t have been worse,” wrote Josh Kraushaar, editor-in-chief of Jewish Insider.
Others suggested that Trump would pardon all of the rioters who were at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Joe Biden has always been a venal liar who utilized his political power to pursue familial gain. So, of course, he’s pardoning Hunter,” wrote Ben Shapiro, a prominent Jewish conservative podcaster and writer. “He was always going to pardon Hunter. Hunter was the bagman.”
‘Tried to break me’
Biden stated on Sunday that the charges against Hunter Biden “came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.”
“Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the courtroom—with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process,” he said. “Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.”
“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 said. “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.”
The president said that he has followed “a simple principle” for his entire career, which is to “just tell the American people the truth.”
“They’ll be fair-minded. 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,” he said. “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
Over the weekend, Biden was also photographed carrying an anti-Israel book as he exited a bookstore in Nantucket, Mass.