President Biden signed a pardon for his son Hunter Sunday after the younger Biden was convicted of federal gun charges and federal tax evasion charges earlier this year, the outgoing Democrat announced.
Biden, 82, claimed he was taking the controversial action after he watched his son being “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.”
The about-face comes after the president, who played a recurring role in the Chinese and Ukrainian business relationships involved in the tax case, previously claimed he would not pardon Hunter, 54.
Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in September to nine counts tied to bilking Americans of $1.4 million in taxes and was found guilty of three federal gun charges in June after he was charged with possession of a firearm while addicted to illegal drugs.
“Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form,” Biden said in a statement.
“Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
The outgoing commander in chief argued his son “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,” Biden said. “Enough is enough.”
The pardon’s language, which was posted online along with the 46th president’s statement, covers all offenses committed by Hunter against the US between Jan. 1, 2014 and Dec. 1, 2024, including any crimes he has not been charged for.
He said the criminal problems for Hunter only began after several of his political opponents in Congress “instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.”
Hunter accepted a probation-only plea bargain last June — only after IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler alleged a far-reaching Justice Department coverup, including tipping off Hunter’s lawyers to a planned search and barring inquiries into Joe Biden’s role.
The first son walked away from that “sweetheart” deal last July during a dramatic courtroom appearance at which his attorneys demanded immunity for possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which could implicate his father.
Hunter was never charged with FARA violations — despite charges announced last year against a businessman who worked with one of the same Chinese firms. The pardon prevents Hunter from facing those foreign-lobbying charges, which have five-year statutes of limitation.
Delaware US Attorney David Weiss was elevated to the rank of special counsel to refile charges after the plea deal collapsed, which he did in Delaware and Los Angeles. The first son was awaiting sentencing in both cases.
Big Guy’s role in foreign dealings
Joe Biden has consistently claimed he “never” discussed business with either his son or brother James Biden and said last December and again in March that he “did not” interact with their partners — despite photos, emails and witness statements indicating otherwise.
His role was investigated by House Republicans during an impeachment inquiry that ended after Biden abandoned his bid for a second term in July.
Evidence and testimony showed that Joe Biden met with Hunter’s associates from both of the major business dealings involved in the tax-fraud case, as well as many others, including while he was sitting vice president and in charge of US relations with the countries where the firms were based.
The then-second son joined the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings in early 2014 shortly after his dad took the helm of the Obama administration’s policy toward Kyiv and received a $1 million salary despite no relevant industry experience. Joe Biden in April 2015 then dined at DC’s Cafe Milano with Burisma board adviser Vadym Pozharskyi.
Joe Biden joined a different Cafe Milano dinner the year before with another assortment of his son’s patrons, including Yelena Baturina, the former first lady of Moscow, who was seeking out US property investments with Hunter and his then-business partner Devon Archer, and who sent $3.5 million to a company held by both men.
Another dinner guest was Kenes Rakishev of Kazakhstan, who purchased Hunter a $142,000 sports car, according to the first son’s own testimony this year.
Joe Biden also was involved in a pair of his son’s dealings with Chinese state-linked companies.
In the case that featured in the tax fraud investigation, the elder Biden met with his son and CEFC China Energy Chairman Ye Jianming at DC’s Four Seasons hotel in early 2017 shortly before $3 million flowed to a consortium of Biden family associates as a thank-you for work done while Biden was still VP, according to congressional testimony from former Biden family business associate Rob Walker.
A May 2017 email penciled in a 10% cut for the “big guy.”
Another $5.1 million flowed from CEFC to entities linked to Hunter and James Biden within 10 days of a threatening text message to a China-based associate, in which Hunter wrote he was “sitting here with my father” and threatened retribution.
Photos from Hunter’s abandoned laptop indicate he was at his father’s Wilmington, Del., home that day.
Of the $5.1 million, $40,000 was transferred from James Biden to Joe Biden in an alleged loan repayment, the first brother admitted to investigators — with the president’s younger brother insisting it was a short-term loan for personal reasons.
In an earlier Chinese venture, Hunter Biden joined his dad aboard Air Force Two for a December 2013 trip to Beijing where Hunter introduced his father to the incoming chief of state-backed investment fund BHR Partners, Jonathan Li.
Joe Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Li’s children and greeted him on speaker phone during a business meeting, Archer told investigators.
Hunter Biden held a 10% stake in BHR Partners at least through part of his father’s first year as president and the terms of his divestment remain murky.
Hunter says he won’t take clemency ‘for granted’
In a statement released by his legal team to news outlets, Hunter said “I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.”
“Despite all of this, I have maintained my sobriety for more than five years because of my deep faith and the unwavering love and support of my family and friends,” Hunter added.
“In the throes of addiction, I squandered many opportunities and advantages. In recovery we can be given the opportunity to make amends where possible and rebuild our lives if we never take for granted the mercy that we have been afforded.
“I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”
But Shapley and Ziegler, the IRS whistleblowers, said that the outcome was “a sad day for law-abiding taxpayers” that showed a “special privilege for the powerful.”
“No amount of lies or spin can hide the simple truth that the Justice Department nearly let the President’s son off the hook for multiple felonies,” the men said.
“We did our duty, told the truth, and followed the law. Anyone reading the President’s excuses now should remember that Hunter Biden admitted to his tax crimes in federal court, that Hunter Biden’s attorneys have targeted us for our lawful whistleblower disclosures, and that we are suing one of those attorneys for smearing us with false accusations.
“President Biden has the power to put his thumb on the scales of justice for his son, but at least he had to do it with a pardon explicitly for all the world to see rather than his political appointees doing it secretly behind the scenes.”
President-elect Donald Trump bashed the pardon as “an abuse and miscarriage of justice” in a Truth Social post Sunday night.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” the incoming president asked, referring to the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters.
Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung issued a statement saying that the Justice Department had treated the Republican leader by a different standard.
“The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system,” Cheung said.
“That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people.”
Hunter Biden was scheduled to be sentenced for the gun case on Dec. 12 and for the tax case on Dec. 16. He accepted the pardon in both cases, according to court filings late Sunday.
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky), who helped lead the impeachment inquiry, said: “Joe Biden has lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling activities. Not only has he falsely claimed that he never met with his son’s foreign business associates and that his son did nothing wrong, but he also lied when he said he would not pardon Hunter Biden.”
“The charges Hunter faced were just the tip of the iceberg in the blatant corruption that President Biden and the Biden Crime Family have lied about to the American people,” Comer added. “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.”
Hunter financed his legal defense through loans from wealthy Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, who provided the first son with roughly $6.5 million to pay off back taxes, finance his lifestyle and retain legal counsel — beginning shortly after Hunter Biden and Morris met for the first time in late 2015 at a political fundraiser for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
The president’s off-spring was set to receive immunity protection under the terms of a plea deal worked out with federal prosecutors earlier this year before the agreement was scuttled, Biden noted in his statement Sunday.
“Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases,” he said.
The plea deal included Hunter Biden pleading guilty to two tax misdemeanors and entering a diversion program for a felony charge of possessing a firearm during his crack cocaine addiction, a copy of the document obtained by Politico at the time shows.
Speculation over a possible pardon grew after Trump topped Vice President Kamala Harris in November to retake the White House.
The White House has repeatedly claimed the president would not intervene on his son’s behalf.
“We’ve been asked that question multiple times and our answer stands — which is no,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters after Trump’s victory.
Biden in his Sunday statement said he made the decision over the weekend, insisting Hunter’s legal turmoil was infected by “raw politics.”
“For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded,” he said.
“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.
“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
