President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter, concluding that he was “selected only because he is my son — and that's wrong.”
“There have been efforts to break Hunter — who has been sober for five and a half years, even in the face of relentless attacks and selective prosecution,” Biden said in a statement. In trying to break Hunter, they've tried to break me – and there's no reason to think it'll stop there. “I've had enough.”
The White House had previously said that Biden had no intention of pardoning the younger Biden, who faces sentencing on weapons and tax charges.
In September, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges, and is scheduled for sentencing later this month. Prosecutors allege he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2019, when they say he instead “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle.” However, his lawyer said at the time: “Like millions of Americans, Hunter was late filing and paying his taxes. Unlike these millions of Americans, he was criminally charged for his failures that occurred while he was addicted to drugs and alcohol.
Last summer, Hunter Biden was convicted of three felony counts related to purchasing a gun in 2018, while he was still in the throes of addiction. The sentencing has been postponed until this month.
The president said in his statement: “The charges in his case came only after many of my political opponents in Congress incited them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea agreement, approved by the Justice Department, was reached in the courtroom – with a number of my political opponents in Congress credited with exerting political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal been made, it would have been a fair and reasonable resolution of Hunter's issues.
He added: “No reasonable person looking at the facts of Hunter's cases could reach any conclusion other than that Hunter was chosen solely because he is my son – and that is wrong.”
Below is the text of the pardon that Biden issued for his son.
Executive Clemency Grant
joseph r. Biden Jr
President of the United States of America
To all to whom these gifts come, peace:
Knowing that, on this day, I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., President of the United States, has been awarded
Robert Hunter Biden
Full and unconditional amnesty
For those crimes against the United States that he committed, may have committed, or participated in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including, without limitation, all crimes charged or prosecuted (including those resulting in convictions ) by Special Counsel David C. Weiss, File No. 1:23-cr-00061-MN in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware and Duckett No. 2:23-CR-00599-MCS-1 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
In witness thereof, I have signed my name and requested the registration of the pardon with the Ministry of Justice.
Done in the city of Washington on the first day of December of the year two thousand twenty-four and the forty-ninth independence of the United States of America.
