Biden pardons his son

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President Joe Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted on federal gun charges and is due for sentencing in December.

Despite the White House's assurances last month that the president had no intentions of pardoning his son, the announcement came through on Sunday evening that he had pardoned him.

In a statement, he said, "Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter," for what he called a "miscarriage of justice."

"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 wrote.

President Biden also mentioned "political opponents in Congress," whom he credited for instigating the charges and for ensuring that a plea deal, composed in July, fell apart in August.

The statement concluded, "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. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."

Over the summer, a jury found the younger Biden guilty on three felony counts related to his purchase and possession of a firearm while addicted to drugs. And in September, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to nine tax-related charges, including three felonies, on the eve of what was expected to be a lengthy and grueling trial.

For the tax charges, Hunter Biden faced up to 17 years in federal prison and $1.35 million in fines. His gun-related conviction carried a potential of up to 25 years in prison.

Hunter Biden was scheduled to face sentencing for both cases in the coming weeks – on Dec. 12 on the gun-related charges in Delaware, and Dec. 16 on the tax charges in California.

Asked about the president's intentions to pardon Hunter Biden on Nov. 7, shortly after the election results came through in favor of Donald Trump, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "We've been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no."

Hunter Biden was seen over last week holidaying with his family in Nantucket.

He released a statement on Sunday, saying, “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. Despite all of this, I have maintained my sobriety for more than five years because of my deep faith and the unwavering love and support of my family and friends. In the throes of addiction, I squandered many opportunities and advantages. 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."

The statement continued, "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.”

My contention that Biden is just Trump-Lite continues to gain evidence.

Biden pardons his son.

President Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden is further bruising a party that was already reeling from blistering electoral losses, with a wave of Capitol Hill Democrats criticizing the move as counterproductive to their party’s efforts toward rebuilding public trust in American institutions scorned by President-elect Trump.

While some Democrats extended a measure of sympathy, President Biden took heat on several fronts, with most who have spoken out indicating the move did more harm than good.

“President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter is, as the action of a loving father, understandable — but as the action of our nation’s Chief Executive, unwise,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said on the social platform X.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) posted that the pardon “was wrong,” while Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said it puts “personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all.”

But a number of Democrats saw President Biden’s sweeping clemency for his son — clearing him of any federal crimes committed during an 11-year period — as fueling the kind of arguments of a rigged and unfair system that are pushed by Trump.

“As a father, I get it. But as someone who wants people to believe in public service again, it’s a setback,” Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) wrote on X.

Even Democrats who say the GOP attention on Hunter Biden has been too intense are balking at the president’s move. The Republican-led panel leaders had deeply probed the Biden family’s foreign business dealings, with outsized attention placed on Hunter Biden.

“I can sympathize with his perspective that his son was subject to vigilante justice. I certainly witnessed that in Republican depositions of Hunter Biden and his attorney,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said Monday on CNN.

“But having said that, what other father in America has the power to pardon their son or daughter if they’re convicted of a crime?” Connolly added. “I really think we have to revisit the pardon power in the Constitution, and at the very least, I think we’ve got to circumscribe it so that you don’t get to pardon relatives, even if you believe passionately they’re innocent.”

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), a former federal prosecutor, said he agreed with the president’s rationale for the pardon — that Hunter Biden’s prosecution was politically motivated — but added, “I wish the president had not stated after the plea agreement fell through that he would not pardon Hunter Biden.”

“It is discouraging that he has now gone back on his word on that,” he added in an interview on CNN.

Though it is rare for Democrats to so openly criticize a president from their party, there is little downside in doing so now. President Biden, an unpopular president, is on his way out of office — after being pushed aside by his party and forced to abandon a reelection bid this summer.

Those in competitive districts could even win points by so publicly bashing the move. Indeed, some criticism came from swing-district Democrats like Landsman and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) — who posted that “no family should be above the law.”

A handful of Democrats, to be sure, defended Biden’s decision, arguing the action is justifiable in the context of what might be coming from Trump. Biden feared Trump would continue to go after Hunter, the White House said Monday.

Some also brushed aside GOP criticism, pointing out the scores of charges Trump faced in the lead-up to Election Day.

“Way to go, Joe,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), a member of the Oversight Committee. “Let me be the first one to congratulate the president for deciding to do this, because at the end of the day, we know that we have a 34-count convicted felon that is about to walk into the White House.”

“So for anyone that wants to clutch their pearls now, because he decided that he was going to pardon his son, I would say take a look in the mirror,” she added.

Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) said Monday on CNN he had “mixed feelings” about the pardon.

“I think there’s a legitimate concern about what that could lead to, and I think that’s part of why the president put in a 10-year stretch for the pardon term, because that should protect him against anything, really up to statute of limitations, basically, for most offenses,” Ivey said. But, he added, “A pardon at this point will be used against, I think, Democrats who were pushing to defend the Department of Justice against politicizing it, which is certainly what President Trump plans to do.”

Trump’s campaign also blasted out an email to fundraise off the news, utilizing the exact kind of argument that Democrats feared: “Joe Biden weaponized the DOJ against President Trump, and now he wants to give Hunter Biden the sweet heart deal of the century.”

While President Biden’s pardoning of his son shook Washington, the sheer act — a president granting clemency to a family member — was not unprecedented. Hunter Biden joins a list of presidential relatives who were pardoned by the president.

Connolly noted that Trump selected Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, to be ambassador to France. Trump in his last term had pardoned the elder Kushner, who in 2005 was sentenced to two years in prison over tax evasion, illegal campaign donation and witness tampering charges.

And former President Clinton pardoned his half-brother, Roger Clinton, for a cocaine possession conviction.

But this instance comes after years of Democrats insisting they were the party that was respectful of the law enforcement apparatus and Justice Department, juxtaposing their behavior with that of Trump, who faced four criminal cases and was found guilty of 34 felony counts in one of them. Throughout Trump’s legal entanglements — which the president-elect criticized at every juncture — Democrats sought to restore trust in the institutions.

President Biden’s pardon, some Democrats say, runs counter to that mission. The president’s statement argued that Hunter Biden “was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong.”

“The Hunter Biden pardon was a mistake,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) wrote on X. “I sympathize with a father’s love, especially in a family that has experienced so much personal tragedy. I also understand the legal arguments in favor of a pardon. But Presidential pardons are never judged solely on the merits of the case, particularly when it involves a family member.”

“Presidents hold enormous power and responsibility and must be held to a higher standard,” he added. “They must instill trust and promote the American people’s faith in their democracy. And right now, upholding the fabric of our democracy is one of our most important tasks.”

He did give Trump an easy whataboutism. Not that Trump needed it.

And he's right in saying they were going after his son only because they couldn't go after him personally.

Yeah, they would never do something like amend the statute of limitations and bring dubious charges in a hostile venue for political purposes.

As I'm certain you're referring to Trump, I'll just say that Trump was actually guilty of stealing loads of classified documents, had tried to convince the governor of Georgia to alter the electoral results, and had instigated an insurrection at the capitol, all because he was a sore loser. I fail to see anything dubious about any of that, or how those prosecutions were at all politically motivated.

Studiously avoids mentioning the NY cases...

The judge who presided over the California tax fraud case against Hunter Biden called out the president for mischaracterizing and minimizing the charges against his son in announcing why he was pardoning him.

"The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history," U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi wrote in a ruling late Tuesday.

Scarsi said the president’s “representations” in the statement accompanying the pardon “stand in tension with the case record.”

"For example, the President asserts that Mr. Biden 'was treated differently' from others 'who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions,' implying that Mr. Biden was among those individuals who untimely paid taxes due to addiction. But he is not," the judge wrote.

He noted that Hunter Biden had said he “was severely addicted to alcohol and drugs” through "May 2019.”

"Upon pleading guilty to the charges in this case, Mr. Biden admitted that he engaged in tax evasion after this period of addiction by wrongfully deducting as business expenses items he knew were personal expenses, including luxury clothing, escort services, and his daughter’s law school tuition. And Mr. Biden admitted that he 'had sufficient funds available to him to pay some or all of his outstanding taxes when they were due,' but that he did not make payments toward his tax liabilities even 'well after he had regained his sobriety,' instead electing to 'spen[d] large sums to maintain his lifestyle' in 2020," the judge wrote.