US President Joe Biden said on Sunday he had pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of making false statements on a gun background check and illegally possessing a firearm and plead guilty to federal tax charges.
Outgoing US President Joe Biden on Sunday (local time) issued a “full and unconditional pardon" to his son Hunter, who faced sentencing on gun crime and tax convictions, stating that he was singled out only because he was his son. Biden stated that he believes in the legal system and called the accusations against his son politically motivated.
In a statement, Biden stated, "I signed a pardon for my son Hunter today. It is a complete and unconditional pardon," a copy of the executive clemency grant states. This formal clemency grant cannot be revoked by President-elect Donald Trump.
"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," he said in a statement released by the White House.
"I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision".
Biden said that he made the decision over the weekend, during the Thanksgiving holiday, which he spent in Nantucket, Massachusetts, with his wife, Jill Biden, their family, and Hunter, before returning to Washington on Saturday night.
Earlier this year, Hunter Biden was found guilty of federal tax and firearms crimes. He was scheduled to appear in Delon, California shortly, where he may have been subject to long jail terms.
Notably, Biden violated a pledge he made frequently and in public before and after withdrawing from the 2024 presidential campaign by taking this action. Even after Trump won the presidential election on November 5, he and his main White House spokeswoman had declared that Biden would not shorten Hunter's sentence or grant a pardon, CNN reported.
According to CNN, the President's pardon will guarantee that Hunter won't be sentenced by the courts on the allegations against him, reducing the likelihood that he will be imprisoned. It is anticipated that the judges handling his cases would postpone the sessions where they would have imposed the punishments after learning of the pardon. The tax case hearings took place on December 16, while the gun case hearings were set for December 12.
A jury found Hunter Biden guilty in June of unlawfully obtaining and carrying a weapon after a heartbreaking trial that revealed his battles with drug abuse and family strife. According to the newspaper, he later entered a guilty plea in September to nine tax-related charges for not paying $1.4 million in taxes, while lavishly spending money on drugs, prostitutes, strippers, and fancy automobiles.
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