On December 1, 2024, it was revealed that President Joe Biden had issued a pardon for his second son, Robert Hunter Biden. The decision came out in the light of Hunter Biden’s criminal trial, with the American attorney and businessman pleading guilty “in federal court in Los Angeles”, which includes “three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses.”
Biden detailed his response to his most recent pardon issued, declaring how “Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
According to his formal indictment, the President’s son was “engaged in a four-year scheme” where he avoided paying around $1.4 million “in self-assessed federal taxes” that he had owed from 2016 through 2019. Furthermore, in 2018, he had filed false returns in order to steer clear of filing out taxes.
As for Hunter Biden’s gun case, the U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika had formally closed the case after the administration of the pardon. Originally, Hunter’s criminal gun case was centered around his purchase of a revolver back in 2018 in which he “lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form” by noting that he “was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.” Without a pardon given, he could have been charged with “25 years in prison.”
Even with Hunter’s criminal cases having been pushed aside, the unrest has yet to have been dissolved. President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign notably remarked over the controversial issue, noting that the final verdict is “nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family,” and adding on in questioning if “the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include[s] the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung also seemingly reacted to the abrupt news, saying, “The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system,” Cheung said in a statement.
However, there has also been very positive and understanding feedback from the news. Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey added his views from the criminal cases Hunter Biden was subjected to saying, “He was only prosecuted by the efforts of his father’s political enemies in order to harm the reelection efforts of Joe Biden.”
President Biden also said that he and the first lady had much pride in their son, and will always show him “love and support.”
