Joe Biden Rarely Issues Pardons but Made an Exception for His Son
With just weeks left in office, President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, for all federal crimes he may have committed during the span of more than a decade—some of which he had already been convicted of or pleaded guilty to.
While the controversial move reeks of favoritism, it’s even more galling in light of how few pardons Biden has issued throughout the rest of his term.
On Sunday night, Biden announced that he had granted his son “a full and unconditional pardon” for “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.”
The move frees up the younger Biden from legal jeopardy stemming from charges of tax evasion, to which he pleaded guilty in September; lying on a firearm purchase form by saying he was not an illegal drug user, of which he was convicted in June; and any other potential wrongdoing that may have taken place during the 10 years and 11 months the pardon covers.
While the document never mentions President-elect Donald Trump, it’s clear that Biden feared reprisal from the incoming administration and its political allies. “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,” Biden noted in a statement announcing the pardon. “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.”
The power to grant clemency, though enshrined in the Constitution, is often controversial, and ripe for abuse; presidents often issue questionable pardons on the way out the door to lessen the possibility of political blowback. But it also represents an important backstop against legal injustice. If judges or juries convict an innocent person or impose an unjust sentence, presidents—or governors, in the case of state crimes—possess the singular, irreversible power to either commute a sentence, which shortens or ends a prison term, or to issue a pardon, which wipes the slate clean and removes the conviction altogether.
To be sure, previous presidents have pardoned family members: Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton on charges of trafficking cocaine, and Abraham Lincoln’s pardons of former Confederates included his sister-in-law. Trump did not pardon any immediate family members in his first term, despite apparently considering it, but he did pardon real estate developer Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law. Kushner previously served 14 months in federal prison for what former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie called “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted.” This past weekend, Trump announced that he would nominate Kushner to be the U.S. Ambassador to France, in
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