On Sunday, outgoing White House resident Joe Biden issued a full and unconditional pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, absolving him of any federal crimes committed between 2014 and 2024.
Hunter Biden’s pardon comes in the wake of convictions for felony gun charges and a guilty plea to tax evasion. The younger Biden’s legal troubles have long been the focal point of Republican scrutiny, with allegations of influence-peddling, bribery, and shady dealings involving foreign entities like Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.
According to Newsweek, Hunter Biden was supposed to be sentenced on December 12 in Delaware for three felonies related to purchasing a gun while using drugs in October 2018. He could face up to 25 years in prison.
On December 16, Biden will be sentenced in Los Angeles for federal tax-related charges after pleading guilty in September. He faces up to 17 years in prison for tax offenses.
The indictment alleges that Biden engaged in a four-year scheme, failing to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes from 2016 to 2019.
With one stroke of his pen, Joe Biden has erased the legal consequences for his son’s actions while doubling down on claims that the justice system has been politically weaponized—against Hunter, no less.
In a public statement, Biden sought to defend his decision, claiming Hunter was “unfairly prosecuted” due to political motivations.
The President framed his actions as those of a father protecting his son from what he called “raw politics” infecting the justice system.
Read Joe Biden’s statement:
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.
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. 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.
The charges in his cases 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 court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. 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. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. 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.
For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: 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. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.
The Biden Gestapo Department of Justice has been slow-walking the Hunter Biden investigation for years, allowing Hunter Biden to escape harsher consequences. IRS whistleblowers had previously testified that political interference hampered the investigation.
Former President Donald Trump wasted no time in denouncing Biden’s actions, taking to Truth Social to express his outrage:
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
Trump’s comments underscore the stark contrast between the treatment of Hunter Biden and the political persecution faced by Trump supporters involved in the January 6th Capitol incident. While Hunter walks free with a pardon, these individuals—many of whom were peacefully protesting—remain imprisoned without fair trials.
