Andrew Harnik/AP; Insider
President Joe Biden has issued a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, for federal gun and tax evasion charges.
"Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter," Biden said in a statement released Sunday. "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, in his statement, described the charges against his son as a strategy by his political opponents to attack his family and oppose his election. He referenced a plea deal that collapsed last summer as the result of pressure from his opponents in Congress and evidence that the prosecution was politically motivated.
The statement continued: "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. 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. 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."
In a series of high-profile cases, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to and was convicted of 12 counts carrying a max sentence of up to 42 years.
The tax evasion case stemmed from an investigation launched in 2018 during Donald Trump's first administration by David Weiss, the US Attorney in Delaware who was nominated by Trump. Though US Attorneys usually resign with each new presidential administration, the Justice Department under Biden asked Weiss to remain in his role, The Washington Post reported at the time.
Hunter Biden attempted to plead guilty to two tax crime charges stemming from the investigation, but US District Judge Maryellen Noreika, another Trump nominee, rejected the deal last July.
The deal would have resulted in the younger Biden pleading guilty to two tax crimes, and prosecutors would have dropped potential gun charges in exchange for Biden seeking treatment for substance abuse. Under the terms of the arrangement, which Trump and other Republicans criticized as a sweetheart deal, Hunter Biden wouldn't have to spend any time in jail.
After the plea deal fell apart, prosecutors in September 2023 charged Hunter Biden with three gun charges, including lying on a gun-purchase form by indicating he did not use illegal drugs even though he was not sober and owning the weapon in violation of laws that prevent people who use drugs from possessing firearms.
The president's son was ultimately convicted by a federal jury in June 2024 on the gun charges and pleaded guilty in September 2024 to nine federal tax charges before jury selection for the trial was set to begin.
The pardon comes ahead of sentencing hearings in both cases scheduled for mid-December.
Joe Biden had previously — and repeatedly — insisted he would not use his pardon power to protect Hunter Biden from the verdicts in his cases. He addressed his change of heart in his statement, saying that politics has "infected" the justice system.
"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," Joe Biden's statement read. "I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."
This is a developing story; please check back for updates.
