Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
Joe Biden has pardoned his son Hunter Biden over convictions on gun and tax charges in an extraordinary reversal of his promise not to do so less than two months before the end of his presidency.
In a statement on Sunday night that sparked a backlash from opponents and some allies, the US president accused political adversaries in Congress of “instigating” the charges against Hunter Biden to attack him.
“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,” Joe Biden said.
“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,” the president added.
The president’s decision drew a furious response from the Trump campaign, Republicans and some Democrats. Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado, wrote on X: “This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later presidents and will sadly tarnish (Joe Biden’s) reputation.”
Hunter Biden’s legal troubles have been a political problem for Joe Biden ever since his electoral victory in 2020, when his son disclosed he was under federal investigation.
In June this year, he was convicted on three felony counts of lying on a federal background check when purchasing a handgun. The trial featured detailed testimony about his crack cocaine addiction and his romantic relationship with his brother’s widow.
Hunter Biden also pleaded guilty to tax charges last month in a Los Angeles federal court. He was accused of evading $1.4mn in taxes, some through inappropriate business deductions. He allegedly spent the some of the cash on cars, drugs, and prostitutes.
The president has issued multiple statements supporting his son, but he has also said he would not pardon him.
Hunter Biden was due to be sentenced on December 12 in Delaware for the firearm case and four days later in California for the tax case.
He faced a maximum imprisonment of 25 years in the gun proceedings, prosecutors said upon indicting him. The tax charges carried a maximum of 17 years in prison. However, the sentences imposed in both cases were considered likely to be less severe.
Joe Biden’s pardon for his son applies to all offences “which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in” between January 1 2014 and December 1 2024. This would shield him from any future prosecutions relating to that period brought by the justice department under Trump.
On Sunday evening, Biden said the legal attacks were part of “an effort to break Hunter”, adding that he had reached his decision to pardon his son over the weekend.
“For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded,” Biden wrote.
“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.”
Steven Cheung, Donald Trump’s communications director, suggested that Joe Biden’s move supported Trump’s claims of a politically motivated justice system. “The failed witch-hunts against president(-elect) Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DoJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponising the justice system,” Cheung said.
Republican congressman James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, said Joe Biden had lied when he claimed he would not pardon his son.
In a statement, Hunter Biden said he had “admitted and taken responsibility” for “mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport”.
The president’s son vowed to “never take the clemency I have been given today for granted” and pledged to devote his life to “helping those who are still sick and suffering”.
Both cases involving Hunter Biden have been overseen by David Weiss, a special counsel appointed by US attorney-general Merrick Garland, owing to the “extraordinary circumstances” of the proceedings.
Garland also installed special counsels to handle probes targeting Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents and Trump’s alleged meddling in the 2020 general election and retention of classified material. Joe Biden ultimately was not charged while the DoJ was seeking to dismiss Trump’s indictments based on internal policy barring prosecution of a sitting president.
