President Joe Biden said on Sunday that he had pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, reversing his earlier pledge to leave the legal proceedings entirely up to the judicial system.
After pleading guilty to tax violations and having been convicted on firearms-related charges, Hunter Biden had been due to face sentencing.
The president’s pardon comes as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office on Jan. 20.
The decision drew reactions from both Republican and Democratic politicians.
Trump said the pardon was a miscarriage of justice.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday.
The term “J-6 hostages” refers to people imprisoned for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol, which occurred as Congress was certifying Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump. More than 1,488 people had been charged with crimes related to the breach as of August 2024, according to the Department of Justice.
Biden said on Dec. 1 that he had signed “a full and unconditional pardon” for his son, sparing him from prosecution for any federal crimes and their associated legal penalties.
The president said that he believes that his son has been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.” He said the charges brought against his son had been influenced by political pressure.
“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,” Biden stated. “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 charged with nine counts of federal tax evasion totaling $1.4 million between 2016 and 2019, to which he pleaded guilty in September. He was also convicted of federal gun charges for illegally purchasing a firearm in 2018 while addicted to drugs.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote on the X social media platform that “trust in our justice system has been almost irreparably damaged by the Bidens and their use and abuse of it.
“Real reform cannot begin soon enough!”
Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) said that he disagreed with the president’s claims that Hunter Biden’s prosecution was politically motivated.
“I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong,” Stanton stated on X. “Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) stated on X that he was shocked by Biden’s decision, considering the president’s previous pledge that he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said that Biden’s move will not only tarnish his reputation but also set a “bad precedent” that could be exploited by future presidents.
“While as a father I certainly understand President Joe Biden’s natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country,” Polis stated on X.
Polis said that no one is above the law—“not a President and not a President’s son.”
James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, said that Biden had lied when he said he would not pardon Hunter.
“It’s unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability,” he wrote.
Meghan Hays, Democratic strategist and a former senior communications aide to Biden, said:
“With some of the nominations that Trump has put up, I think it probably caused a little bit of worry for him. But also I think people have to remember: the president lost two children already and he does not need to lose another one.”
“The president made a decision as a father to keep his son out of jail and out of harm’s way moving forward,” Hays said.
“I think that some of these nominations that Trump has been putting forward and leaving this in the hands of other folks is worrisome to the president… President(-elect) Trump and Kash Patel have said they are going to go after their political enemies, they’re going after retribution; I think that Hunter Biden has been seen as the person they’ve gone after many times, and I don’t think the president is going to leave that to chance when he leaves office.”
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a post on X that the pardon was warranted, and that no U.S. attorney “would have charged this case given the underlying facts.”
“After a 5 year investigation the facts as discovered only made that clear,” Holder said. “Had his name been Joe Smith the resolution would have been—fundamentally and more fairly—a declination.“
Hunter Biden was scheduled to face sentencing on Dec. 12 and 16 for the gun and taxation charges, respectively, but these sentencing hearings are now likely to be canceled.
Epoch Times reporters Aldgra Fredly and Melanie Sun and Reuters contributed to this report.