In an eleventh hour reversal, President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who was set to be sentenced later this month on federal gun charges.
Despite insisting for months that he would not grant clemency to his son, Biden wrote in a statement Sunday night that he believed the case against Hunter was “selectively and unfairly prosecuted” for crimes committed when Hunter was in active addiction, which is why he ultimately decided to issue the pardon.
“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,” Biden said.
Hunter Biden has faced a flurry of legal troubles, the most serious of which stem from accusations that he lied on a federal form when he purchased a gun in 2018. He was facing up to 25 years in prison for the three federal charges that he was convicted of.
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“I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted,” Hunter Biden said on Sunday.
As recently as Nov. 8, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was telling reporters that the president had no intention of pardoning his son.
“We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no,” she said.
The decision comes as Biden has only 50 days left in the White House. Presidential pardons at the end of a term are common, but Biden’s pardon of his son immediately drew the ire of congressional Republicans.
“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,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said in a statement.
Biden is not the first president to pardon a family member. Bill Clinton pardoned his brother for drug charges, though he had served the entire sentence already. Charles Kushner, who will serve as the next ambassador to France, was pardoned by Trump in 2020.
Biden has long spoken publicly about Hunter Biden’s struggles with sobriety and his love for him. When the younger Biden was found guilty over the summer, the president released a statement saying he was proud of Hunter for being “so strong and resilient in recovery.”
On Sunday, Biden said he was moved to act in part because Hunter is his son.
“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 said. “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.”
“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision,” he added.
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Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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