President Joe Biden and the White House lied for years about his intent to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, for his crimes — with the latest lie coming November 7, 2024, just a few weeks before the pardon was issued on December 1.
President Biden signed a pardon for his son on Sunday evening.
In the first White House press briefing after the election, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre answered flatly, “No,” when asked whether the president intended to pardon his son in the lame duck period before January.
From the White House transcript on November 7, 2024:
Q Secondly, his son, Hunter, is also up for being sentenced next month. Does the president have any intention of pardoning him?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no.
Q Thank you.
Jean-Pierre had given similar answers, over and over again, even saying there was no “possibility” of a pardon.
Biden himself told David Muir of ABC News in a June interview that he had “ruled out” a pardon for Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden was convicted of three gun charges in June 2024, and pleaded guilty to tax evasion in September 2024. He was, critics said, also guilty of failing to register as a foreign agent, but was not prosecuted for that crime, because that would have implicated his father in influence-peddling schemes that began during the Obama administration.
President Biden said in his statement explaining the pardon: “For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth.”
The reality is that he, and the White House, lied for years to the country.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.