Joe Biden has drawn criticism from Democrats over his decision to pardon son Hunter, following his gun and tax convictions, reversing past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family.
The Democratic president had previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence after convictions in the two federal cases in Delaware and California. The move comes weeks before Hunter Biden was set to receive his punishment after his trial conviction in the gun case and guilty plea on tax charges, and less than two months before President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House.
It caps a long-running legal saga for the younger Biden, who publicly disclosed he was under federal investigation in December 2020 – a month after his father’s 2020 victory – and casts a pall over the elder Biden’s legacy.
Mr Biden, who time and again pledged to Americans that he would restore norms and respect for the rule of law after Trump’s first term in office, ultimately used his position to help his son, breaking his public pledge to Americans that he would do no such thing
Representative Greg Landsman, an Ohio Democrat, said on X: “As a father, I get it. But as someone who wants people to believe in public service again, it’s a setback.”
Fellow Democrat Michael Bennet, Colorado Senator, said Mr Biden’s decision placed “personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all”.
In a statement released Sunday evening, President Biden said: “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.”
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday defended the president’s action and said Mr Biden believed Hunter faced further persecution from his adversaries, who she did not name.
“One of the reasons the president did the pardon is because they didn’t seem like – his political … opponents – would let go of it. It didn’t seem like they would move on,” she told reporters on Air Force One during a trip to Angola. “They would continue to go after his son. That’s what he believed.”
