President Biden’s decision to give his son a full and unconditional pardon represented a stunning reversal for the outgoing commander-in-chief, who previously had insisted he would do no such thing while extolling the importance of respecting the rule of law.
Biden and his aides had emphatically insisted for more than a year that the president wouldn’t pardon his son. They had been asked numerous times if a Hunter Biden pardon was being considered, decisively answering “no” on a multitude of occasions.
But Biden shifted course late Sunday, saying he was pardoning his son because Hunter Biden had been singled out for prosecution, suggesting he believed it had been politics all along.
“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 a statement, adding that “enough is enough.”
“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.”
The younger Biden was facing both tax and gun charges and was set to face sentencing on the firearm charges later this month.
After Hunter Biden was found guilty of three charges relating to a 2018 gun purchase in June, the president released a statement saying he “will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.”
It’s a stance that aligned with his belief in the independence of the Justice Department.
Biden has repeatedly called on Americans to trust institutions in an effort to fight back against Trump’s claims that the prosecutions against him are politically motivated.
Biden also warned on the campaign trail that putting Trump back in the White House could lead to the pardoning of people arrested for actions during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.
At an event in September, Biden called on Trump to “stop saying you’re going to pardon insurrectionists” as part of his repeated warnings against the president-elect’s potential pardons.
But Biden shared in his statement that his calculus had changed over the weekend, and according to The New York Times, it was largely a family decision that included discussions with Hunter Biden’s lawyers.
Michael LaRosa, former special assistant to the president and press secretary to first lady Jill Biden, argued that while the pardon isn’t good for Democrats or the president’s legacy, it is good for the first family.
“It’s not exactly great politics for the Democratic party but I’m frankly relieved for the first lady, the president, and the whole family because I hope now they can finally have some peace and perhaps closure,” he said. “This is a family who has more experience than most when it comes to healing and I hope this pardon starts that process.”
LaRosa noted the Hunter Biden pardon is the second big reversal for Biden that had serious implications for his party after his decision in June to drop out of the 2024 race. He’d previously been adamant he would not pardon his son.
Biden’s decision undercut messaging numerous Democrats had offered throughout the GOP investigation into the Bidens and Hunter’s trials.
“Joe Biden never publicly questioned or challenged this prosecution,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said last year at a House Oversight Committee hearing where two IRS agents testified about their allegations the Justice Department had slow walked the investigation into Hunter Biden.
“Unlike President Trump’s blatant abuse of the rule of law and the relationship between the President and DOJ, there’s no evidence that President Biden has involved himself in any way in the investigation into his own son.”
The pardon allowed Republicans to go on the offensive, arguing Biden was making their point about a politicized system.
“Remember, the Biden DOJ tried to give Hunter a corrupt sweetheart deal that was only stopped when the judge asked questions. This entire ordeal has been an affront to the rule of law,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote on X.
Trump and the GOP have regularly targeted Hunter Biden for the past four years, though the incoming president had given contrasting signals over how he might handle his predecessor’s son going forward.
Trump has raised the specter of investigations for the “entire” Biden family, but also didn’t rule out the possibility of pardoning Hunter Biden himself.
After Biden pardoned his son, Trump called the move a “miscarriage of Justice.”
Trump pardoned a number of allies and family members, including his son-in-law’s Jared Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, who had been convicted in 2005 of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering. Trump on Sunday named Kushner as his nominee to serve as ambassador to France.
Other pardons issued by Trump went to his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was convicted on tax and bank fraud charges for concealing money he earned in Ukraine; Roger Stone, who was convicted after lying to Congress amid the Trump-Russia investigation, and Steve Bannon, who was convicted on charges relating to wire fraud and money laundering.
Former Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.), a senior policy adviser at Nossaman, said Biden may have justified whatever damages are caused to institutions through his full and unconditional pardon to his son by considering Trump’s own actions as president.
“I’m sure Joe Biden looked at the rap sheets of the people pardoned by Trump and concluded that Hunter’s crimes were no worse than most of those pardoned and commuted by Trump,” he said.
Rep. Dan Goldman, (D-N.Y.), said it was “discouraging that [Biden] has now gone back on his word” on pardoning his son but defended the move in light of Trump’s vows to seek revenge against his perceived enemies.
“The nominees that Donald Trump has put forward – Matt Gaetz, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard – these are not people who are going to implement the rule of law. They have been picked to weaponize the federal government against Donald Trump’s enemies and his adversaries. And that is the risk to the rule of law. And that is why Joe Biden used his authority to protect his son from the weaponization,” Goldman said during an appearance on CNN.
“The reality is that Donald Trump tried to ten times or more weaponize the Department of Justice in his first administration, and he is now putting loyalists in their critical positions at the Department of Justice who will absolutely weaponize it even more,” he added, referencing numerous prosecutions Trump tried to ignite during his first term.
Other Democrats, however, were starkly critical of Biden’s decision, and warned it would only embolden Trump and other future presidents.
“President Biden’s decision to pardon his son was wrong,” Michigan Sen. Gary Peters (D) said on X. “A president’s family and allies shouldn’t get special treatment. This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) called the move a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents” and said it “will sadly tarnish his reputation.”
Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) said Biden “got this one wrong,” arguing the Hunter Biden case “wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution.”
