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President Biden had stated he would not pardon his son Hunter Biden multiple times before reversing course on Sunday, ultimately granting clemency to Hunter for all offenses against the United States he committed or may have committed from Jan. 1, 2024, to Dec. 1, 2024.
On June 6, Biden said he would not pardon Hunter during an interview with ABC News anchor David Muir in Normandy, France, on the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Regarding President-elect Trump’s conviction in the Manhattan “hush-money” trial, Biden told “MAGA Republicans” to “Stop undermining the rule of law. Stop undermining the institutions.”
Muir, noting Hunter was in the midst of a federal trial himself at the time, then asked Biden, “Will you accept the jury’s outcome no matter what it is?”
“Yes,” Biden said flatly.
“Have you ruled out a pardon for your son?” Muir asked.
President Biden and son Hunter Biden stepping out of a bookstore while shopping in Nantucket, Massachusetts on Nov. 29, 2024. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Again, the president responded, “Yes.”
About a week later, Biden told a news conference on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Italy that he would not use his presidential powers to lessen Hunter’s sentence.
A sentencing date for Hunter’s conviction on federal gun charges had not been set at the time, though the three counts carried up to 25 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was nominated by Trump, would have made the decision.
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“I’m extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction. He is one of the brightest, most decent men I know,” Biden said during the press conference on June 13. “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that, and I will not pardon him.”
Biden, who will leave office on Jan. 20, on Sunday granted Hunter a “full and unconditional pardon” for offenses against the United States “which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.” That includes, but is not limited to, those prosecuted by Special Counsel David Weiss.
Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen leave court after his guilty plea in his trail on tax evasion in Los Angeles, California, on Sept. 5, 2024. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
“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 a statement. “Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.”
“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,” he added. “In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here.”
Hunter Biden was supposed to be sentenced this month in two federal cases, which the special counsel brought after a plea deal with prosecutors that likely would have spared him prison time fell apart under scrutiny by a judge. Under the original deal, Hunter was supposed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and would have avoided prosecution in a gun case as long as he stayed out of trouble for two years.
The plea hearing quickly unraveled last year when the judge raised concerns about unusual aspects of the deal. Hunter was subsequently indicted in the two cases.
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Hunter Biden was convicted in June in Delaware federal court of three felonies for purchasing a gun in 2018 when, prosecutors said, he lied on a federal form by claiming he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs. He had been set to stand trial in September in a California case accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes, but he agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges in a surprise move hours after jury selection was set to begin.
House Republicans also sought to use Hunter’s history of overseas business ventures in a since-abandoned attempt to impeach his father, who has long denied involvement in his son’s dealings or benefiting from them in any way.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
