After years of claiming he would not do so, President Joe Biden issued a pardon for his son's felony gun and tax convictions on Sunday.
Hunter Biden was convicted of three felonies in June. The president's son was found to have lied to a licensed gun dealer and on an application form about his status as a drug user when purchasing a gun in 2018. A third felony found Hunter Biden guilty of possessing a gun while using drugs. Hunter Biden had also pleaded guilty to several tax-related charges in September. President Biden's pardon clears his son of all charges.
"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," Biden wrote in a statement shared by the White House. "Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form... It is clear that Hunter was treated differently."
Biden noted the repeated interference in his son's cases by appointees of President-elect Donald Trump, saying that the cases were an "effort to break" his son.
"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 – and that is wrong," he 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."
The president has repeatedly claimed he would not pardon his son. The White House denied any plans to intervene on Hunter Biden's behalf as recently as last month. In his statement, President Biden said that he was forced to act as his son's cases had been "infected" with partisan sniping and score-settling.
"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," he wrote. "I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."
