CNN’s Honig: Hunter Pardon ‘Will Tarnish Joe Biden’s Legacy’

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Monday on “News Central” that President Joe Biden tarnished his legacy with his pardon of his son Hunter.

Honig said, “There has long been a fair debate — fair on both sides — about whether Hunter Biden is being treated overly leniently or overly zealously because of his status as Joe Biden’s son I think there are pints to both sides of that. But what I think is not disputable is that this is a historic act of political nepotism. Joe Biden even says, if you really parse his statement, he acknowledges that a substantial part of this is because Hunter Biden is his son and that will land Joe Biden on a historic list that he probably doesn’t want to be a part of, along with Bill Clinton, who pardoned his half-brother, Roger Clinton, along with Donald Trump, who pardoned Charles Kushner, who is the father of his own son-in-law, Jared Kushner. So I’m sure Joe Biden understands the historic implications of what he’s done and now he’s earned his way onto that list.”

He continued, “This pardon will tarnish Joe Biden’s legacy. I mean, Joe Biden, let’s be clear here, he lied to us for a long time. He said categorically, ‘I will not pardon my son.’ He said I will take it off the table. And he couched it in very high-minded terminology, ‘I respect the Justice Department. I respect the jury’s verdict.’ Well, now he’s gone back on that.”

Honig added, “But as to whether this tarnishes the justice system, I don’t think I would go that far. I think this, like I said, will go down on the list of ignominious presidential pardons. But I don’t think law students 50 or 100 years from now are going to look back at this as a horrific miscarriage of justice that undermines the foundation of our justice system. There is a reasonable argument that in some respects, Hunter Biden was treated unfairly. And I think that will give Joe Biden some degree of cover.”

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