Joe Biden, the president of the United States has granted presidential pardon to his son Hunter Biden, for his firearms and tax convictions despite repeatedly saying he wasn’t going to pardon him even if he was going to possibly end up in jail.
Biden said on Sunday evening that his son had been “singled out” and “selectively, and unfairly” prosecuted due to his family name.
“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 said in a statement released by the White House.
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“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.”
Explaining his decision, Biden said that throughout his career he had followed the principle of telling the public the truth out of a belief that Americans are 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 said.
“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
Hunter Biden was set to face sentencing for a string of felonies related to making a false statement about his drug use during a gun background check and failing to pay at least $1.4m in taxes.
In June, Biden had flatly ruled out the possibility of granting his son a pardon or commuting his sentence.
“I said I will abide by the jury’s decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him,” Biden had said.
The White House had also reiterated Biden’s intention not to pardon his son as recently as November 8, when press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters: “Our answer stands, which is no.”
However the decision of the pardon on Sunday has met mixed reactions from people who criticised the presidents for breaking his promise and for using his presidential power to protect his son.
Jared Polis of Colorado, quickly released a statement saying he was “disappointed” and that the move would “tarnish” the outgoing president’s reputation.
Biden have justified his actions saying that people are “almost never” brought to trial for wrongly filling out a gun purchase form and that those who pay their taxes late usually receive “non-criminal resolutions”.
The president said that Republicans, who cited Hunter Biden’s overseas business activities in a since-abandoned impeachment effort, had used his son’s troubles to damage him and oppose his election.
“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,” Biden said.
“Had the plea deal been held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.”
In a statement on Sunday, Hunter Biden said that mistakes he had made in the throes of addiction had been “exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport”.“In recovery we can be given the opportunity to make amends where possible and rebuild our lives if we never take for granted the mercy that we have been afforded,” he said.
“I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”
Incoming president Donald Trump reacted the new on his social media platform Truth where he described the pardon as an abuse of justice
“Does the pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social, referring to people convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol.
“Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
Under the U.S. Constitution, presidents hold broad authority to grant clemency for individuals convicted of federal crimes. This power has historically been used to benefit family members and political allies.
For example, shortly before the end of his first term, President Donald Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Charles Kushner had served prison time for tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions, and witness tampering. Similarly, in 2001, President Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother, Roger Clinton Jr., who had previously served over a year in prison during the 1980s for attempting to sell cocaine to an undercover police officer.
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