President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter out of concern that his political rivals would continue to persecute the younger Biden in the future, the White House said on Monday, as a growing group of Democrats and Republicans criticized his decision, Reuters reported.
Biden, a Democrat whose term ends Jan. 20 when Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office, signed an unconditional pardon for Hunter Biden on Sunday and said he believed his son had been selectively prosecuted and unfairly targeted by the president’s political opponents.
Biden has said in the past that he would not pardon his son, including to ABC News in June when asked if he ruled out a pardon, to which he replied, “Yes.”
His surprise move has drawn criticism from the Republican political opposition, as well as from Democrats who say it threatens to undermine public confidence in the rule of law, a concept that Biden and his party have used to criticize Trump.
Hunter was put on trial on tax crimes and weapons charges, after Republicans in Congress targeted him for years, accusing him of making business deals using his father’s name, but failing to prove any clear connections.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday defended the president’s action and said Biden believes Hunter is facing more grief from his opponents, without mentioning them by name, and suggested the matter could continue even after the president leaves office. Jean-Pierre was among the White House officials who repeatedly said in the past that Biden would not pardon his son.
“One of the reasons the president is issuing the pardon is because it doesn’t look like his political opponents are going to abandon him. It doesn’t look like they’re going to move forward,” she told reporters aboard Air Force One during a trip to Washington. Angola. “They will continue to go after his son. That’s what he thought.”
Jean-Pierre stressed that this is not the first time that a president has pardoned a member of his family. Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger before leaving office, and Trump pardoned his daughter’s father-in-law, Charles Kushner.
She said that Biden believes in the Department of Justice, despite his statement that his son’s process in the judicial system was “infected by politics.”
“There are two things that could be true: The president believes in justice…and order and…the Department of Justice, and he also believes that his son has been politically targeted,” she added.
She declined to provide further details about why or how Biden changed his mind, or whether the recent elections that put Republicans in charge of the White House and both branches of Congress played a role.
Republicans accused Biden of corruption, while Democratic lawmakers were divided, with some suggesting he favors family over state, and others pointing to Trump’s judicial nominees as a rationale.
Hunter Biden pleaded guilty last September to federal tax charges in a federal court in Los Angeles, and was scheduled to be sentenced on December 16, presided over by Judge Mark C. Scarsi, who was nominated by Republican President-elect Donald Trump.
A jury convicted him in June of making false statements on a gun background check. He was scheduled to be sentenced on those charges this month as well.
Biden said on Sunday that his son was selectively prosecuted and treated differently from others in similar situations. “No reasonable person looking at the facts of Hunter’s cases could reach any conclusion other than that Hunter was selected solely because he is my son — and that is wrong,” he said.
Late Sunday, Hunter Biden’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss the indictments against him.