WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 12: World Food Program USA Board Chairman Hunter Biden (L) and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden attend the World Food Program USA's Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony at Organization of American States on April 12, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Image: Getty)
President Joe Biden issued a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, for his federal gun and tax charges.
On Dec. 7, 2023, Hunter was indicted on nine California tax charges.
The new charges – three felonies and six misdemeanors – were filed alongside federal firearms charges in Delaware, which assert that Biden’s son lied about his drug use to purchase a firearm, which he possessed for a brief period in late 2018.
On June 11, a jury in Wilmington, Delaware, convicted Hunter on three felony gun charges.
Biden, who said he would not pardon his son if convicted of federal gun charges during an ABC News interview on June 6, delivered his pardon in a statement published on Dec. 1.
“Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” the president wrote in the statement.
“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 added. “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,” he then noted. “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,” Biden said. “Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the courtroom – 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,” the president declared.
“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,” he stated. “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,” he declared. “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,” Biden asserted. “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
Hunter mentioned in an emailed statement that he appreciated the relief given to him and promised to devote the life he 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 American attorney went on to say.
Members of both parties slammed the decision. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) said the pardon “further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all.”
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