President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, who was set to be sentenced this month for gun and tax convictions.
“Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” President Biden said in a statement, describing the prosecution as “selective and unfair.” He noted that Hunter faced charges that others with similar circumstances typically don’t.
By taking this step, Biden has reversed a public promise he made several times, both before and after withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race, to not pardon or commute his son’s sentence. Even after Trump’s victory, the president and his top White House aides had insisted that Biden would not pardon Hunter.
The pardon ensures that Hunter Biden will not face sentencing and effectively removes the possibility of prison time. As a result, the judges handling his cases are expected to cancel the sentencing hearings previously scheduled for December 12 in the gun case and December 16 in the tax case.
This pardon cannot be rescinded by President-elect Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called for Hunter to be prosecuted, especially for his foreign business dealings.
The pardon encompasses any potential federal crimes Hunter Biden may have committed between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024, CNN reports. This timeframe notably includes his entire tenure on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, a period during which his foreign business dealings came under intense scrutiny.
In June, Hunter Biden was convicted by a jury for illegally purchasing and possessing a firearm, following a highly publicized trial that exposed details of his struggles with drug addiction and familial challenges, CNN reports. In September, he pleaded guilty to nine tax-related offenses tied to $1.4 million in unpaid taxes, which coincided with extravagant spending on escorts, strippers, luxury vehicles, and drugs.
“I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction,” Hunter said in a statement Sunday. He added, “I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”
Joe Biden said his decision to issue the pardon was difficult but necessary. “I believe in the justice system,” he said, “but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process, and it led to a miscarriage of justice.” He described the charges as part of an effort by his political opponents to attack him and his family.
President Biden pointed to his son’s five and a half years of sobriety and resilience in the face of what he called “unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution.”
While critics have seized on the president’s reversal of his public stance, Biden expressed hope that Americans would understand his choice. “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision,” he said.
The Biden family spent Thanksgiving together in Nantucket, where father and son were seen attending a tree lighting and going to Mass. The pardon caps a deeply challenging chapter for the Bidens, underscoring the intersection of family, justice, and politics in one of the most high-profile cases of Biden’s presidency.