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Joe Biden has pardoned his son Hunter for gun and tax charges in a dramatic reversal of his promise not to use power to benefit his son less than two months before his presidency ends.
In a speech on Sunday night, the US president accused political opponents in Congress of “instigating” the charges against Hunter to attack him.
“No reasonable person looking at the facts of Hunter’s case would come to any conclusion other than Hunter was singled out because he’s my son — and that’s wrong,” Biden said.
“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decisions, and I kept my word as I watched my son be prosecuted selectively and unfairly,” Biden added.
Hunter’s legal problems have dogged Joe Biden since he won the 2020 election, after his son disclosed that he was being investigated by the government.
In June of this year, he was indicted on three counts of lying on a government check while buying a gun. The trial included detailed testimony about his crack addiction and his romantic relationship with his brother’s widow.
Hunter Biden also pleaded guilty to tax charges last month in federal court in Los Angeles. He was charged with tax evasion of $1.4mn, some through improper business deductions. He he says he destroyed itt money on things like cars, drugs, and prostitutes.
The President has made several statements in support of his son, but has also said that he will not forgive him. The change comes ahead of both hearings, which are scheduled for this month.
On Sunday evening, Mr Biden said the charges were part of his “efforts to deal with Hunter”, adding that he had carried out his decision to pardon his son at the end of the week.
“Throughout my career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They will be rational,” Biden wrote.
“The truth is this: I believe in justice, but I am fighting against this, and I also believe that black politics has affected this and made it impossible for justice to happen”.
Steven Cheung, Donald Trump’s communications director, said Biden’s actions echoed Trump’s claims about the administration. “The failed witch hunt against President Trump has proven that the Democrat-run DOJ and other tyrannical prosecutors are guilty of creating weapons of justice,” Cheung said.
Republican Congressman James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said Biden lied when he said he would not pardon his son, calling the family the “Biden Crime Family”.
In his statement, Mr. Hunter Biden said that he “accepted and took responsibility” for “mistakes in the most difficult days that I have become accustomed to – mistakes that have been used to humiliate and embarrass me and my family in the political game”.
The president’s son vowed that he “will not take the grief that has been given to me today” and promised to dedicate his life to “helping those who are sick and suffering”.
The pardon applies to all offenses committed by the President’s son between January 1 2014 and December 1 2024.
A research A June poll by Monmouth University in New Jersey found that less than half of voters, and nearly two-thirds of Democrats, thought the Justice Department’s decision to indict Hunter Biden on gun charges was politically motivated.
The same poll found that more than half of all Americans, and almost all Republicans, also believe that President Donald Trump’s trial in New York was politically motivated.
