Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPresident Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter on Sunday night, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his 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 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.
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.
In a statement released Sunday evening, 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.”
The president’s sweeping pardon covers not just the gun and tax offenses against the younger Biden, but also any other “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”
In June, Biden categorically ruled out a pardon or commutation for his son, telling reporters as his son faced trial in the Delaware gun case, “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”
As recently as Nov. 8, days after Trump’s victory, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ruled out a pardon or clemency for the younger Biden, saying, “We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no.”
The elder Biden has publicly stood by his only living son as Hunter descended into serious drug addiction and threw his family life into turmoil before getting back on track in recent years. The president’s political rivals have long used Hunter Biden’s myriad mistakes as a political cudgel against his father: In one hearing, lawmakers displayed photos of the drug-addled president’s son half-naked in a seedy hotel.
House Republicans also sought to use the younger Biden’s years of questionable overseas business ventures in a since-abandoned attempt to impeach his father, who has long denied involvement in his son’s dealings or benefiting from them in any way.
“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,” Biden said in his statement. “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.”
“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision,” Biden added, claiming he made the decision this weekend.
The president had spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Nantucket, Massachusetts, with Hunter and his family, and was set to depart for Angola later Sunday on what may be his last foreign trip as president before leaving office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Hunter Biden was convicted in June in Delaware federal court of three felonies for purchasing a gun in 2018 when, prosecutors said, he lied on a federal form by claiming he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
He had been set to stand trial in September in the California case accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. But he agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges in a surprise move hours after jury selection was set to begin.
David Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Delaware who negotiated the plea deal, was subsequently named a special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland to have more autonomy over the prosecution of the president’s son.
Hunter Biden said he was pleading guilty in that case to spare his family more pain and embarrassment after the gun trial aired salacious details about his struggles with a crack cocaine addiction.
The tax charges carry up to 17 years behind bars and the gun charges are punishable by up to 25 years in prison, though federal sentencing guidelines were expected to call for far less time and it was possible he would have avoided prison time entirely.
Hunter Biden was supposed to be sentenced this month in the two federal cases, which the special counsel brought after a plea deal with prosecutors that likely would have spared him prison time fell apart under scrutiny by a judge. Under the original deal, Hunter was supposed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and and would have avoided prosecution in the gun case as long as he stayed out of trouble for two years.
But the plea hearing quickly unraveled last year when the judge raised concerns about unusual aspects of the deal. The younger Biden was subsequently indicted in the two cases.
Hunter Biden’s legal team this weekend released a 52-page white paper titled “The political prosecutions of Hunter Biden,” describing the president’s son as a “surrogate to attack and injure his father, both as a candidate in 2020 and later as president.”
The younger Biden’s lawyers have long argued that prosecutors bowed to political pressure to indict the president’s son amid heavy criticism by Trump and other Republicans of what they called the “sweetheart” plea deal.
Rep. James Comer, one of the Republican chairmen leading congressional investigations into Biden’s family, blasted the president’s pardon, saying that the evidence against Hunter was “just the tip of the iceberg.”
“It’s unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability,” Comer said on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.
Biden is hardly the first president to deploy his pardon powers to benefit those close to him.
In his final weeks in office, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in law, Jared Kushner, as well as multiple allies convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Trump over the weekend announced plans to nominate the elder Kushner to be the U.S. envoy to France in his next administration.
Trump, who has pledged to dramatically overhaul and install loyalists across the Justice Department after he was prosecuted for his role in trying to subvert the 2020 presidential election, said in a social media post on Sunday that Hunter Biden’s pardon was “such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice.”
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump asked, referring to those convicted in the violent Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
Hunter Biden said in an emailed statement that he will never take for granted the relief granted to him and vowed to devote the life he has rebuilt “to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”
“I have admitted and taken responsibility for my 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 younger Biden said.
Hunter Biden’s legal team filed Sunday night in both Los Angeles and Delaware asking the judges handling his gun and tax cases to immediately dismiss them, citing the pardon.
A spokesperson for Weiss did not respond to messages seeking comment Sunday night.
NBC News was first to report Biden was expected to pardon his son Sunday.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
Is this surprising to anyone?
Not at all. I think most people would do the same.
This is pretty much all Mitch McConnell’s fault. I hope he enjoys his legacy as the gravedigger of American democracy.
IBJ is hosting a celebration open house this afternoon. Saint Andre, Kip Tew, Joe B, and the normal gaggle are expected to be in attendance
He rightfully should have.
Trump will try to pardon himself and the rest of his family, even Baron who probably wants to be part of another family.
Trump pardoned several on his way out the door, including the new Ambassador to France, his daughter’s father in law, who was in jail for fraud and blackmail. Hunter is an errant boy scout compared to Trump’s pardon recipients. And just wait to see if Trump pardons the insurrectionists from January 6…as he has promised several times. I wonder how he’d feel if a violent mob stormed the Capitol this January 6 to try to stop his election. Wonder if he’d pardon them, or speak of them as patriots?
first of all, Hunter is a terrible person and involved in soooo many bad things. Still, Joe has the right to pardon him. timothy, most Presidents pardon their “errant” friends and cronies. It’s unseemly but it happens. There were no “insurrectionists” on January 6th…there were protesters and rioters. I hope Trump pardons them all!
Really, no insurrectionists. That’s adorable, just like all the proclaimed fraud in the 2024 election that Trump spent months talking about. Why’s he gone so silent on that front?
“…soooo many bad things”. Speaking like Trump now. Drug users are mainly ill and need help. The gun charges was a stupid decision, but not a life time in prison. Taxes have been paid.
The average person who experiences the amount of CTE brain trauma before 5 that he did combined with emotional trauma wouldn’t survive past 18…..
It’s a great example of the failures of medicine until recently to understand the human brain.
Typical twit.
Why pardon 11 years in the past? What crimes did he commit in 2014 as part of the Burisma board?
Was there treason?
Trump’ers fascination with treason is wild, given their rather one-sided use of her term.
Hunter Biden’s primary crime was not being as successful as Jared Kushner. Maybe Joe should have insisted that his son have a job and a top secret clearance just like Trump did for his family members.
Because of Trump. You will notice even after Trump won, Biden said he was not going to pardon his son. But, then Trump decided to play Mussolini and say he was going to reshape the government into his own personal law firm and secret police to go after his political enemies, and he started making appointments of crazy followers (with zero experience to lead a Girl Scouts’ troop, let alone any major government agencies). Trump and his cronies specifically said they were going to go after Hunter, and this prompted Biden to pardon him.
Trump needs to take a seat and focus on the issues kitchen table issues that people care about, which is lowering inflation, taxes, etc. If he wants to spend his time on personal grudges, then he needs to resign and let JD Vance become President. I cannot stand Vance and his phony holier than thou attitude (“Do as I say, not as I do”), but at least he is not promising to use the government to settle his personal vendettas.
biggest crook to ever inhabit the oval office. Please don’t say until now either. Watch for him to do the same for his brother soon. Total CYA move to avoid scrutiny once he’s out. Biden can purchase another beach house with confidence now
Total justified move.
Even after Trump got elected, Biden stated he was not going to pardon Hunter, and he was gracious and welcoming to Trump and abided by decorum with the transition efforts. Instead of showing a shred of decency (and we all know Trump has *none*), he decided to play Mussolini and promise he was going to abuse the government to make it into his personal attack dog to go after his personal enemies. Forget the American people (who Trump never cared about), he stated his priority was going to be persecuting people to fulfill his own personal vendettas. So, of course, Biden felt compelled to pardon his son, so that he was not subject to some witch hunt and imprisoned for life, or possibly even murdered (because, hey, Trump says the President can do whatever he wants).
Trump is a soulless creature, though given how bizarre he has been acting lately, it is quite likely Vance will take over soon. Vance is a self-serving, self-righteous, power-hungry, smug hypocrite, but at least he is not mentally unstable.
So easy…SO easy for politic hungry types to feed on this. A father pardoned his son. His son didn’t hurt anyone.
His son has had addiction problems and publicly addressed them His private life was exploited by those who would wish to hurt his family. Those people care NOTHING about anything but revenge and anything that could discredit good people. Mistakes…and a father caring about his son. Please don’t tell me that you wouldn’t do it.
You. Would.
Next.
All the hypocrites trying to rationalize this… What happened to “nobody is above the law?”
Trump blew that out of the water in so many ways.
Trump destroyed that concept when he decided that the President makes up whatever law he likes.
There is nothing hypocritical about trying to protect your child from being wrongfully imprisoned for decades (or possibly life) or potentially even murdered (after some kangaroo court proceeding for “treason”). Biden graciously welcomed Trump back to the White House, and has worked to ensure there is a peaceful and smooth transition of power. Biden has followed all the important rules of decorum. Meanwhile, Trump has decided he is Mussolini and promised to turn *our government* into his personal attack dog to persecute his political enemies and pursue his vendettas. He and his cronies have also stated they *would* go after Hunter. So, yes, Biden did what any parent would do, which is protect his child from a madman.
There is nothing to “rationalize” here. There is only despicable behavior by Trump and his minions.
This was not a pardon for Hunter, (indirectly yes) but a pardon for Joe. D.H. hit a key point above, why pardon going back 11 years to 2014? Because it shuts down any investigation into Hunter’s finances and the pay for access to Joe that was going on through Hunter. Joe Biden is the direct beneficiary of this pardon because now all the “pay for play” money to get access to him from Burisma, etc. that came through Hunter is shielded from investigation.
I love Trumpublicans avoiding talking about the actual crimes they’re silent about. Because now, just now, they are clutching their pearls about “the swamp”.
Kushner got $2 billion from the Saudi’s as a thank you for Trump letting them murder a dissident, right there in the open, and the real issue is Hunter Biden.
Next you will tell me Trump had the absolute right to take any and all classified documents with him and hide them. Or to call someone up and ask them to “find” votes.
If Biden was concerned about himself, then he has the power to pardon to himself.
You are also just wrong. Simply because Hunter has been pardoned, it in no way shuts down any investigation of his finances or “pay for access” with respect to Joe Biden. A pardon simply means Hunter cannot be prosecuted for federal crimes, it does *not* mean he or his finances are immune from investigation with respect to a criminal proceeding against another party. In some ways, the pardon even makes things a bit easier for prosecutors. With the pardon, Hunter would have much more difficulty pleading the 5th if he were called as a witness to testify in a case against another party.
It really saved republicans – they were going to spend the next 4 years looking at pictures of his genitals repeatedly.
Now they can find something else to do that doesn’t help Americans!
Poor sky screamers. Open a second story window, scream, “Trump!” and jump head first. Nobody will hear it.