LOS ANGELS.–President Joe Biden, 82, pardoned his 54-year-old son Hunter who faced jail time for a weapons charge and income tax evasion, all legitimate charges but now discredited because Biden said Hunter was singled out because he was his son. Joe previously told ABC News David Muir June 6 that he would not pardon or commute Hunter’s sentence but that was when he was still running for president. White House Press Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre told the White House press pool repeatedly that Joe had no plans of pardoning Hunter. Jean-Pierre got annoyed fielding questions about the prospect of a Hunter pardon because no one really believed that Biden wouldn’t eventually do it. When Joe told Muir there would be no commutation or pardon he was still running for president, part of a political calculation. Once out of the race July 21, everything changed about a presidential pardon.
Hunter’s problems have been in the news since the 2020 presidential race when his laptop computer was found at a Wilmington, De., computer store. Democrats and the press suppressed stories in the press and social ,edia about the presence of the laptop, confirming many of the foreign transactions that Joe all denied knowing anything about but verifying that Joe was present at meetings with Chinese officials. Hunter’s once former business partner Tony Bobulinski confirmed that Joe was present at some of Hunter’s foreign business transactions. Democrats got U.S. intel officials to brand Hunter’s laptop Russian disinformation when, in fact, it was anything but. But Democrats and the press prevented the Hunter laptop story from surfacing in 2020 while Joe and his running mate Kamala Harris discredited Trump for his response to Covid-19.
When it comes to pardoning Hunter, everyone expected it because Hunter faced sentencing Dec. 12 for gun and income tax evasion charges that could have landed him 17 years in prison. “This wasn’t a politically motivated prosecution. Hunter Biden committed felonies and was convicted by a jury of his peers,” said Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Az.) on X. “This was a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation,” said Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said on X. While receiving some criticism, most to the media yawned, not seeing it as a big deal, considering that Biden had nothing at stake pardoning his son. If Joe were running for reelection, it’s obvious that pardoning Hunter would have affected some voters. But given the way presidential pardons have been used in the past, what Joe did was nothing unusual, out of the ordinary.
Pardoning Hunter for a ten-year-period did raise some eyebrows considering all the Democrat and media denials about any of Hunter’s illegal overseas business deals. Joe denied in the 2020 campaign knowing anything about Hunter overseas business deals. Yet Hunter got his job on Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings board with his friend Devon Archer when Joe was Vice President. During the 2020 campaign Democrats and the press were on the offense going after Trump for anything related to Covid-19, discrediting the Hunter laptop story as Russian disinformation. When it comes to Joe pardoning Hunter now, there’s nothing at stake with Joe due to leave office Jan. 20, 2025. Joe doesn’t care about what the Democrat Party thinks of him after forcing him out of the 2024 race July 21. Saving his troubled son from jail time seems like the right thing to do before he leaves office.
Hunter’s pardon was carefully worded by Biden’s attorneys to include “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or take part in during the period from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024,” trying to leave no stone unturned if Trump orders his Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to go after Hunter for any other possible crimes. What bothers some Democrats and Republicans about the blanket pardon were past denials by Joe and his Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no,” said Jean Pierre Nov. 8. So when the pardon finally came Dec. 1 before Biden flew to Luanda, Angola for an African state trip, it stunned a lot of folks on both sides of the aisle. When it comes to nepotism, it should surprise no one that Biden would want to keep Hunter out of jail.
Whatever Hunter’s charges, especially on a gun application or income tax evasion, they certainly weren’t any worse that others receiving presidential pardons in the past. When President Clinton pardoned Democrat fund raiser Marc Rich before he left off in 2001, Rich faced far worse charges than Hunter Biden. Riche 65-federal charges would have landed him 300 years in federal prison. So when it comes to Hunter’s ticky-tack charges over his gun application, there really weren’t all that serious. “The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress investigated them to attac me and oppose by election,” Biden said, calling the charges against Hunter politically motivated. Whether that’s true or not, no one blames Biden for pardoning Hunter. They blame him for his incompetence on the economy and foreign policy.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
