Biden pardons his son

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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.