Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter has antagonized both sides of the US political divide, with Republicans crying hypocrisy and Democrats warning it undermines efforts to rein in Donald Trump.
Biden’s announcement shocked Washington, after he entered the White House in 2021 vowing to restore the “integrity” of a justice system that Democrats said had been corrupted by Trump — and because he had specifically vowed not to reprieve his son.
The president instead issued a “full and unconditional” pardon on Sunday, absolving 54-year-old Hunter Biden of any wrongdoing over the last decade, charged or otherwise, just ahead of his looming sentencing over gun and tax convictions.
Biden argued that his son had been targeted in a politicized prosecution launched under the Trump administration and that “there’s no reason to believe it will stop here.”
But the backlash from his own side was swift.
“I know that there was a real strong sentiment and wanting to protect Hunter Biden from unfair prosecution,” Glenn Ivey, a Democratic congressman in Maryland and an attorney, told CNN.
“But this is going to be used against us when we’re fighting the misuses that are coming from the Trump administration.”
While politicians typically pay lip service to the importance of independent law enforcement, Democrats and Republicans offer different justifications for suspicion of the Justice Department and presidents of both stripes have protected allies.
Trump wielded the pardon power liberally in favor of convicts with whom he had personal relationships, including his daughter’s father-in-law Charles Kushner, his friend Roger Stone and his 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
‘Singled out’
Biden announced Hunter’s pardon in a statement arguing that the charges against his son were brought in a process infected with “raw politics.”
Hunter Biden was convicted by a jury in June of lying about his drug use when he bought a gun and pleaded guilty in a separate tax evasion trial in September.
The president and his team had been adamant that he would not pardon his son, with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre making the claim as recently as November 7.
Charges for the gun offense are rare, and the president — in language that CNN likened to Trump’s rhetoric on law and order — argued that his own Justice Department had been wielded unfairly for political purposes.
Seeking to justify his about-face, Biden said that “Hunter was singled out only because he is my son.”
But Republicans argued that the pardon demonstrated that the sitting president, and not his incoming replacement, was politicizing the system.
“He’s leaving office in complete and total disgrace. He is a liar and there’s no other way to spin this today,” conservative political strategist Scott Jennings, a White House staffer under George W. Bush, told CNN.
‘Bad precedent’
Meanwhile Democrats worried that Trump would use Biden’s action to justify pardoning rioters jailed after the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump wrote in a post on his platform, Truth Social, on Sunday. “Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
Democratic Colorado Governor Jared Polis said Biden’s son had brought his legal woes on himself and accused the president of having “put his family ahead of the country.”
“This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation,” Polis posted on X. “When you become President, your role is Pater familias of the nation.”
Political scientist Nicholas Creel, of Georgia College and State University argues however that nothing Biden does before leaving office will affect the actions of a successor who “simply does not care about precedent.”
“Trump was never going to need an excuse to do whatever he wants once he takes office,” he told AFP.
“So while I’m sure we’ll get plenty of pundits claiming that Biden pardoning his son opens the door for Trump to use his pardon power in overtly personal and political ways, I find it laughable that this wasn’t always going to be the case.”