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U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday he had pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of making false statements on a gun background check and illegally possessing a firearm and plead guilty to federal tax charges.
"Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. 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 said in a statement released by the White House.
The White House had said repeatedly that Biden would not pardon or commute the sentences of his son, a recovering drug addict who became a target of Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump.
"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," Biden said.
Hunter Biden faced sentencing for the false statements and gun convictions on Wednesday. In September he pled guilty to federal charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes while spending lavishly on drugs, sex workers and luxury items. He faced sentencing in that case on Dec. 16.
“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," Hunter Biden said in a statement on Sunday, adding he had remained sober for more than five years.
"In the throes of addiction, I squandered many opportunities and advantages ... 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.”
The president, whose son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015, said his opponents had sought to break Hunter with selective prosecution.
He said people were almost never brought to trial for felony charges over how they filled out a gun form, and said others who were late in paying taxes because of addiction but paid them back with interest and penalties as his son had typically received "non-criminal resolutions" to their cases.
"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. "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."
Biden said he had made the decision over the weekend. The president, his wife, Jill Biden, and their family including Hunter, spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Nantucket, Massachusetts and returned to Washington on Saturday night.
During a walk around Nantucket shops on Friday afternoon, one supporter shouted at the president from across a street to pardon his son.
"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."
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
66 Comments
Bad Haircut
Well there's a surprise. Crime pays.
HopeSpringsEternal
BIG SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok1517
Minor offenses anyways!
But good to see that President Biden takes care of his, too.
Not like that other one who will pardon J6 rioters, who assigns admin. and government jobs to his family members, to convicted ones. The Godfather the way he is!!
HopeSpringsEternal
Tax evasion and gun crimes are very clear cut, not selective prosecutions. Furthermore, most of Hunters crimes for tax evasion lapsed due to statute of limitations, that was intentional by the Biden led DOJ.
Hardly selective, rather VERY objective crimes.
mist1
Hmm . . .
HopeSpringsEternal
Who considers $millions in tax evasion minor offenses?
$ Hunter pocketed by selling out America to foreigners by pimping his Daddies' political influence = TREASON
dagon
Yes , it is a two tier justice system Biden is showing Hunter.
But comparatively speaking nothing compared to the admitted tax evasion and fraud of Trump himself and those he himself pardoned.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9084479/Donald-Trump-pardons-Jared-Kushners-father-Roger-Stone-Paul-Manafort-new-clemency-spree.html
The two-tier justice system extends across the duopoly and is predicated on extreme wealth, connections and influence.
HopeSpringsEternal
Not one BLM violent protestor was jailed, causing billions and billions in damage across many cities and yet J-6 marches were persecuted, even old ladies!
Biden's terrible legacy and track record ELECTED DJT!!
Peter Neil
so?
Blacklabel
Lied right to the American people’s face multiple times.
his son was found guilty in a court of law by a jury of his peers. Convicted felon, isn’t it?
dagon
One of them is not the President-elect.
Blacklabel
Time to get some “state” charges filed.
HonestDictator
Y'all Trumper's asked for this, but don't like it when it's not your own. Abuse of power never counts when it's "your" guy. Now you want to complain... HYPOCRITES!!!
plasticmonkey
President Biden was elected with a landslide mandate. Hunter Biden’s plight has been adjudicated by the American people through the results of the 2020 election. So you rightists get …nothing.
Hawk
Sure, he may as well, it's not like Trump wouldn't have done the same thing so his supporters can just unbunch their panties.
It does give his and the Democrats' 'tough on guns' stance the lie, though.
Tokyo Guy
I think this is a very nicely timed middle finger to a certain section of the electorate, and I'm here for it.
Geeter Mckluskie
Not a fan of the Dems, but as a father I approve of this move
Geeter Mckluskie
I'm sure he would have. Not so sure anyone has their panties in a bunch over a father coming to the rescue of his son though. I applaud Biden for this. Good for him!
Geeter Mckluskie
Who gets charged is largely a matter of who is in charge
Some dude
You'd know, you voted for one.
Blacklabel
so there IS a two tiered justice system.
hunter had not been convicted at that time and we were lied to by “intelligence” officials linked to Biden that it was all “Russian disinformation”
it’s all good! now all of trump’s charges by the same weaponized “justice system” can be dropped, and he can pardon anyone he wants.
HopeSpringsEternal
Fact is Trump's doctored up false business records charges in Manhattan, calling a LEGAL NDA (nondisclosure agreement) a legal expense a crime?!
Trump's case in NYC will be tossed SOON on appeal, he committed no crime, meanwhile the Traitor Hunter.
Hundreds of people in Congress have NDAs after all, but not everyone is selling out the US to foreigners with Daddies influence = traitor, not paying taxes, buying guns illegally while using illegal drugs and prostitutes.
Biden and his corrupt family and DOJ ELECTED DJT!
Kuribozu
Not one BLM violent protestor was jailed, causing billions and billions in damage across many cities and yet J-6 marches were persecuted, even old ladies!
HopeSpringsEternal, you are dead wrong. More than 10,000 BLM protesters were arrested for actions related to the summer 2020 protests. Your precious J6 heroes have been treated correctly according to the law.
Hawk
And yet, because it's Biden, they do.
Ricky Kaminski13
We have entered the next phase of the collective purge. This is where those on the out just don’t even try and hide their corruption any more. It’s actually the perfect last chapter to the Biden presidency. The final middle finger to y’all after claiming to be a force for truth and justice all this time. The joke is obviously on us.
Blacklabel
i did and so did the majority of voters. You can’t vote, darn. How helpless you must feel.
Courts and judges and justice and juries of peers and crimes and laws mean nothing now thanks to Biden lying that he wouldn’t pardon his son.
His son who our justice system found guilty. but Joe claims our justice system is unfair and selective. Thanks for agreeing with us now. Joe.
Chabbawanga
Wtf is this travesty? Jeeeeesus christ. Just when you think it cant get any worse.
Some dude
i did and so did the majority of voters. You can’t vote, darn. How helpless you must feel.
Helpless? More like amused. My country, and many many others, are openly laughing at yours.
Anyway, this is a baller move, as you guys say, on Biden's part. I'm seeing it all over social media, and the general reaction is "good for him" (that obviously doesn't include the right-wing echo chamber that is X; I deleted that ages ago).
And the election went your way, so why are you so upset about a little parting shot from Biden?
Chabbawanga
You won the election so who cares if a criminal gets aways with their crimes.
Some dude
You won the election so who cares if a criminal gets aways with their crimes.
Haha, that's a good one. By being re-elected, Trump has all but guaranteed that he won't face justice for his many, many, many crimes.
That's some top-level shamelessness right there. Trump should give you a job.
gaijintraveller
That is a bad precedent, especially bad when you take into account the family that will follow his in the White House.
u_s__reamer
The turkey-pardoning Biden is a keen advocate of the 2-, or is it a 3-tier (according to Garland) justice system as this predictable nepo-pardon for guilty Hunter proves, but history won't pardon Biden for gift-wrapping felonious Trump for a second term and his genocidal legacy in Gaza.
owzer
Hilarious. Will be even funnier when he gets arrested for something else and daddy can’t pardon him again.
plasticmonkey
That’s what pardons are for. Them’s the rules.
Blacklabel
Let’s bookmark this one for later. lol
plasticmonkey
In 2020 the writing was on the wall for Hunter. A laptop was found in a garage somewhere with photos of Hunter’s genitalia. A sign that the Biden family was corrupt to the core.
But Americans voted overwhelmingly to clear Hunter of all wrongdoing. It was a mandate.
Toblerone
Absolutely disgusting. And all along Biden absolutely promised the American people he wouldn’t do it.
Equally disgusting is seeing the so-called “progressives” on this site twist and turn to justify it.
I’m so glad I woke up and abandoned the left.
Peter Neil
grump pardoned his son-in-law’s father.
but thats ok, because, uh, that’s different.
plasticmonkey
Trump pardoned one of his family members (sleazebag grifter Charles Kushner). I didn’t approve, but the law’s the law.
Burgerland
President Biden was elected with a landslide mandate. "
Biden being swept away by Trump landslide / tsunami mandate in 2024 is slightly more relevant in ...2024.
Chabbawanga
Political pardons completely undermine the justice system. They should not exist.
Toblerone
Americans voted overwhelmingly to clear Hunter of all wrongdoing.
Absolute nonsense!
HopeSpringsEternal
The crazy thing of all is Biden has upped his game since the 'coup'. No doubt he would have run far better than Kamala within the "Blue Wall" states. He had much deeper roots there and with union voters
Can't blame him for pardoning, any father would likely do the same. Can blame him for a terrible track record with open border, inflation and global chaos, especially Afghanistan & Ukraine/NATO eastward expansion stupidity.
Blacklabel
Grump?(y)- that’s you since you lost the election!
Did Trump assure the American people multiple time over months, a lie to try to win an election, that he wouldn’t pardon this person?
your own son is equivalent to your daughters husband’s Dad?
kinda different the lies and the close relationship in the Biden abuse of power here.
Blacklabel
Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled Joe just couldn’t keep his word.
now the left has nothing to say about tiered justice or pardons for the next 4 years.
bass4funk
ROFL! You believe that?
And neither does Biden, he lost, Karma got the best of him, Hunter will always be a…well…lol, his party humiliated him, probably won’t get a Presidential library and I could go on and on, but you get the message. Anyway, after next month we don’t need to worry about this guy and that woman, what’s her name, KJP or something like that…
Underworld
Burgerland
President Biden was elected with a landslide mandate. "
Biden won by 7.9 percentage points over Trump that is a mandate.
Trump won by 1.6 percentage points over Harris. Mandate? Not so much.
bass4funk
That goes both ways, believe me.
And?
I don’t care, these people are as irrelevant as used toilet paper.
bass4funk
He whored around and did Drugs?
That the FBI lied about and called it Russian disinformation? Another reason why so many are taking a permanent vacation in a month.
Blacklabel
wow it’s almost like you shouldn’t have shivved Biden for the Indian Jamaican lady huh?
HopeSpringsEternal
Hunter the traitor and rich tax criminal gets the last laugh, so he's all good, but he caused terrible damage to the democratic brand = party of out of touch elitists.
No surprise then Trump and Republicans made major inroads with ALL major voting groups vs. 2020, women, men, working and middle class, young, all minorities, Catholics, Jews, college and noncollege voters, etc.
Toblerone
The laptop showed Hunter’s emails to be riddled with liberal (pun intended) use of the N word, among other expletives.
Exchanges with his Dad showed Joe made no attempt to admonish or correct him.
The Biden family is corrupt and fake to the core.
Express sister
Biden won 306 electoral votes in 2020. The same as Trump did in 2016, which Trump called a landslide. So if it’s a landslide for Trump, it was for Biden.
Anyway, I’m not sure why bass isn't celebrating this. You’ve always said you love nepotism and think it is good.
ok1517
Hope spring,
I guess you are a little confused!
"$ Hunter pocketed by selling out America to foreigners by pimping his Daddies' political influence = TREASON"
That was the Kushners and Trumps, selling secrets to the highest bidder!
That was Trump, selling secrets to the highest bidder and storing them in his Mar-a-Lago toilet!
Or did you already forget those $2 billion (fact) that the Kushners received?
As for Hunter Biden: "..... failure to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019."
But yeah, sure, sometimes the letter "b" and the letter "m" look so similar and make no big difference!
Can't deny the facts, can you?
Norm
We have no proof that he didn’t. :-)
HopeSpringsEternal
Anyone comparing a highly successful and wealthy Trump family member with Hunter Biden is utterly confused. Rich people do deals, that's no crime.
Hunter's a criminal, that's a FACT.
dagon
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/30/trump-charles-kushner-france-ambassador/76677177007/
Well the hoeing but not for himself.
Which is worse.
The elder Kushner admitted to paying a prostitute to seduce a brother-in-law and have their sexual encounter videotaped. Kushner then sent the tape to his sister in an effort to intimidate her against becoming a witness in the federal investigation
The MAGA selective cult blindness will never fall to reason.
Some dude
So is Trump, and the US just gave him the keys to the WH.
Seems fair; Hunter gets pardoned and Trump gets elected.
I mean if we're going to talk about equality under the law (or lack of it) here.
bass4funk
Legal, that’s why the Feds didn’t arrest him, so what else you got?
You mean the failed raid that resulted in nothing as well as the following witch hunt trials
Again, he was constitutional allowed to do this.
You are required to pay your taxes, are you not,
What does that even mean
Well, the left doesn’t have them.
HopeSpringsEternal
Trump's case in NYC is TOAST, he'll win so fast on appeal it'll make your head spin.
Hunter, well he wins too, but he's still the guy that helped take down his Daddie and the Democrats, so WE WIN!!
wallace
Trump avoided paying taxes for years. But Felons cannot own a gun.
wallace
Trump intends to pardon all the Jan 6 criminals. More than 8,00 of them.
bass4funk
He doesn’t need one, he’s got people around him that do. Lol
nishikat
YES!
HopeSpringsEternal
US voters have spoken, Biden was removed from the ticket in part because of Hunter. We should all wish them well, no hard feelings and hopefully no further prosecutions. Bidens and Democrats paid a HIGH price for this unethical Hunter saga, the brand took a big HIT.
Some dude
Just out of interest: do you consider smearing one's own excrement on the walls of the White House to be a patriotic act? And should a person who does so be pardoned?
Or does your answer depend on who does it?