Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had two thoughts about President Biden pardoning his son Hunter Biden after previously saying he would not, while talking to NBC's "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker on Sunday.
"When you have his opponents going after his family as a father, as a parent, I think we can all understand Biden trying to protect his, his son and his family," Sanders said. "On the other hand, I think the precedent being set is kind of a dangerous one. It was a very wide open pardon, which could, under different circumstances, lead to problems in terms of future presidents."
Despite that, Sanders believes that Biden leaves a "strong legacy" due to being progressive on domestic policies. He also said that "the economy today in many ways is in very strong shape."
Sanders even went as far as to say Biden was the most progressive president since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Discussing the minimum wage, Sanders told Welker he would work with President-elect Trump to raise it, as it has stood at $7.25 an hour since 2009.
Welker said Trump acknowledged it was too low, but Sanders said the last time he tried to get it raised to $15 an hour was two years ago and no Republicans voted for it.
"Look, a $7.25 per hour minimum wage is an absolute disgrace," Sanders said. "We have millions of people in this country who are working for starvation wages. They cannot afford housing, that cannot afford to adequately feed their kids."
Sanders now believes the minimum wage should be $17 an hour, and hopes lawmakers "can work in a bipartisan way to finally accomplish that goal."
President Biden's act of clemency, the largest in a single day, has left some congressional Republicans unhappy, while a number of Democrats are hoping to see it expanded.
"I’m not surprised at this point anymore," Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said. "I think I’m still trying to get over the Hunter Biden thing after he promised America he wouldn’t do it."
Biden broadly pardoned his son Hunter Biden earlier this month despite promising he would not. Hunter was convicted in two separate federal cases.
According to Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Biden had lost whatever credibility he had left when he pardoned his son.
"Every president at the end of their term has that same kind of act. Where’s the bar live?" asked Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas. "Nobody knows. I haven’t gone deep into the waters to see exactly who he’s touching. But it’s the United States, hey?"
The president revealed Thursday he had commuted jail sentences for nearly 1,500 people and granted 39 pardons for nonviolent offenders.
"Does that tell you how corrupt he thinks this administration has been?" Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., wondered.
"I did very few, and I wanted to make sure if the community didn't buy in" that the person would not receive a pardon.
"I would make sure that my staff would go back and check in that area and do a due diligence and a deep dive," he explained.
Asked if Manchin trusted that Biden's administration did it own due diligence on the people whose sentences were being commuted, he said, "I would like to think. I believe in the process. I believe in the system. So, I hope so."
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., released a statement on Biden's action, approving of it.
"The president took an important step by commuting the sentences of these men and women. In far too many cases in our justice system, the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. I have long advocated for criminal justice reform to address these inequities and commend President Biden for this act of mercy and for his leadership," the senator said.
"These individuals have successfully returned to their communities and reunited with their families. I urge the president to continue using his pardon power during his remaining time in office to address miscarriages of justice, just as the founders of this democracy intended."
Other Democrats applauded the move, including Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who told reporters, "These are nonviolent offenders, and I think they represent compassion. In no way is [this] gonna jeapardize public safety. So, I support the president, what the president did."
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., expressed an appetite for even more similar actions from Biden, saying Thursday, "We’re still hoping he will offer clemency to the people who are on death row. We’re still looking for the next list of people."
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., said he supported Biden using his pardon power, though he hasn't looked through all the people affected. He explained it is "important to use that pardon power and clemency to even out our system and to evolve with our system as we move forward."
Former FBI source Alexander Smirnov has struck a plea agreement with the office of special counsel David Weiss, agreeing to plead guilty on several counts.
The document notes that Smirnov is agreeing to plead guilty to "Count Two of the indictment in United States v. Alexander Smirnov … which charges defendant with causing the creation of a false and fictitious record in a federal investigation … " and agreeing to plead guilty to charges of tax evasion.
Smirnov is accused of providing false information to the FBI.
He signed off on a statement of facts in support of the plea agreement, which echoes allegations that had been made against him in an indictment.
Smirnov allegedly "provided false derogatory information to the FBI about Public Official 1, an elected official in the Obama-Biden Administration who left office in January 2017, and Businessperson 1, the son of Public Official 1, in 2020, after Public Official 1 became a candidate for President of the United States of America."
The allegation apparently refers to President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, though the two are not specifically identified by name.
Smirnov had served as a "confidential human source" with the FBI.
The material also alleges that Smirnov "claimed executives associated with Burisma, including Burisma Official 1, admitted to him that they hired Businessperson 1 to ‘protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,’ and later that they had specifically paid $5 million each to Public Official 1 and Businessperson 1, when Public Official 1 was still in office, so that '[Businessperson 1] will take care of all those issues through his dad,' referring to a criminal investigation being conducted by the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General into Burisma and to 'deal with [the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General].'"
"The events Defendant first reported to the Handler in June 2020 were fabrications. In truth and fact, Defendant had contact with executives from Burisma in 2017, after the end of the Obama-Biden Administration and after the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General had been fired in February 2016 — in other words, when Public Official 1 could not engage in any official act to influence U.S. policy and when the Prosecutor General was no longer in office," the statement of facts asserts.
"Defendant transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy."
Longtime Biden confidante and former senior adviser Anita Dunn criticized the president's handling of his son Hunter's pardon on Wednesday, saying that she disagreed with the "timing" and the "rationale" while describing it as an "attack on our judicial system."
"Had this pardon been done at the end of the term in the context of compassion the way many pardons will be done, I'm sure, and many commutations will be done, I think it would have been a different story," Dunn told a New York Times panel at the DealBook Summit 2024.
"So I will say, I absolutely agree with the president's decision here, I do not agree with the way it was done, I don't agree with the timing, and I don't agree frankly with the attack on our judicial system."
When asked by the moderator to elaborate on her "attack on our judicial system comment," Dunn said, "I think the president's statement has to be taken at its face value and clearly, like everyone else in the world, he has the prerogative of changing his mind, and that is indeed what he kind of said and he did there."
"I think that from a Democratic Party perspective, from a Democratic perspective, as we were in the midst of the president-elect rolling out his nominees and in particular in the middle of a Kash Patel weekend, kind of throwing this into the middle of it was exceptionally poor timing, and that the argument is one that I think many observers are concerned about a president who ran to restore the rule of law, who has upheld the rule of law, who has really defended the rule of law, kind of saying, 'well, maybe not right now,'" she said.
Dunn, who served as a political strategist and adviser to Biden on his 2020 campaign and a senior adviser in the Biden White House until leaving for the Harris campaign this summer, went on to reiterate that she agrees with the pardon, but disagreed with the "timing," the "argument" and the "rationale."
Fox News Digital reached out to White House but did not immediately receive a response.
Dunn added that she was never part of any conversation at the White House about pardoning Hunter besides what to tell the press, which she says was a one-word answer: "No."
Dunn's comments come as recent polling shows that Biden's decision to pardon Hunter after previously vowing on several occasions he would not give his son a pass has the approval of only 20% of Americans.
Dunn's comments drew immediate reaction on social media, including from former Jill Biden press secretary Michael LaRose, who posted on X, "Yikes."
President Biden attempted to make the case when he pardoned his son earlier this month that Hunter had been unfairly prosecuted.
"Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter," Biden wrote in a statement at the time. "From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted."
"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," Biden added. "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."
The president also referenced his son's battle with addiction and blamed "raw politics" for the unraveling of Hunter's plea deal.
"There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution," the 82-year-old father wrote. "In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."
President Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter after previously vowing he would not give his son a pass has the approval of only 20% of Americans, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found about half of adults disapprove of the pardon, which came after Hunter was convicted on felony gun and tax charges.
About 18% of adults neither approved nor disapproved of the decision, while 8% said they didn’t know enough to say one way or the other, according to the poll.
While Democrats were more likely to approve of the pardon than Republicans and independents, the poll showed just 38% of Democrats approve compared to 27% who said they disapproved of the about-face.
About 80% of Republicans and 51% of independents disapproved of the pardon, according to the poll.
Biden issued a sweeping pardon for Hunter on Dec. 1 after he stated on record multiple times that he would not pardon him should a jury convict his son.
The first son had been convicted in two separate federal cases earlier this year. He pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in September, and was convicted of three felony gun charges in June after lying on a mandatory gun purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
The president argued in a statement that Hunter was "singled out only because he is my son" and that there was an effort to "break Hunter" in order to "break me."
Reporters grilled White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre a day after the pardon, asking whether President Biden and his surrogates lied to the American people. Jean-Pierre responded, "One thing the president believes is to always be truthful with the American people," and repeatedly pointed to Biden’s own statement on the matter.
Fox News Digital's Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
Lunden Roberts, the mother of Hunter Biden's child, Navy Joan Roberts, is backing President Biden's decision to issue a sweeping pardon for his son.
"I think what Joe did is what the love of any parent would do and not everybody will understand that," Roberts said in a statement provided by her publisher, Skyhorse, to the DailyMail. "I'd like to see more of that love towards Navy Joan and hope that Biden will take the steps to become a grandparent for my daughter."
Roberts went on to say that she believes that Hunter was "targeted because of who his dad is."
"I don't know what it's like to be president, so I can't say what choices I would make if I was in Biden's shoes, but I am a mother," she said. "There's nothing I wouldn't do for my child. No barrier I wouldn't break for Navy Joan."
"Many people have done what he's done and have never gotten in trouble," Roberts added. "But because his dad is president, he's being held to a different set of circumstances."
Despite repeatedly stating that he would not pardon Hunter, President Biden reversed course and granted clemency to his son for all offenses against the United States he committed or may have committed from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024.
The sweeping pardon, therefore, covers, but is not limited to, Hunter's conviction on federal gun charges in Delaware and his guilty plea on federal tax charges in California. He was due to be sentenced in both cases this month.
Roberts penned a book published in August titled, "Out of the Shadows: My Life Inside the Wild World of Hunter Biden."
The Arkansas native details how she met Hunter while she was in Washington, D.C., for school and while Hunter was at the height of his addiction to crack cocaine.
She said she moved back home after becoming pregnant, and Hunter, already a father to three daughters with ex-wife Kathleen Buhle at the time, had grown distant. Roberts gave birth to their daughter, Navy, in August 2018.
Hunter was also briefly involved with the widow of his late brother Beau Biden, and not long afterward, he married his current wife, Melissa Cohen Biden. The couple welcomed a son in March 2020 named Beau Biden Jr.
The White House Christmas stocking display has included just six grandchildren for years, excluding Navy. President Biden had refused to acknowledge Navy as his grandchild until July 2023.
A court-ordered paternity test confirmed Hunter as Navy's father in 2020. Earlier this year, Roberts agreed to reduced child support payments in exchange for Hunter trying to build a relationship with his daughter.
Roberts said Hunter has spoken with his daughter over Zoom.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and Skyhorse for additional comment.
The pardon debate – individual, group, partisan, preemptive – is spinning out of control.
In his "Meet the Press" interview, Donald Trump mocked Joe Biden’s repeated assurances about Hunter: "‘I’m not going to give my son a pardon. I will not under any circumstances give him a pardon.’ I watch this and I always knew he was going to give him a pardon."
In a portion of that interview that did not air but was posted online, the president-elect complained to Kristen Welker:
"The press was obviously unfair to me. The press, no president has ever gotten treated by the press like I was."
Why did he appear on "Meet the Press"? "You’re very hostile," Trump said. Her response: "Well, hopefully, you thought it was a fair interview. We covered a lot of policy grounds."
"It’s fair only in that you allowed me to say what I say. But you know, the answers to questions are, you know, pretty nasty. But look, because I’ve seen you interview other people like Biden."
"I’ve never interviewed President Biden," Welker responded. Trump said he was speaking "metaphorically."
"I’ve seen George Stephanopoulos interview. And he’s a tough interviewer. It’s the softest interview I’ve seen. CNN interview. They give these soft, you know, what’s your favorite ice cream? It’s a whole different deal. I don’t understand why."
The strength of Welker’s approach is that she asked as many as half a dozen follow-ups on major topics, making more news. When she asked, for instance, whether he would actually deport 11 million illegal immigrants, as he’d said constantly on the campaign trail, he answered yes – which for some reason lots of news outlets led with. But a subsequent question got Trump to say he didn’t think the Dreamers should be expelled and would work it out with the Democrats.
As for Trump, he reminded me of the candidate I interviewed twice this year. He was sharp and serious, connecting on each pitch, fouling a few off. This was not the candidate talking about sharks at rallies.
With one significant misstep, he made the case that he was not seeking retribution – even backing off a campaign pledge that he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Biden.
That misstep, when Trump couldn’t hold back, was in saying of the House Jan. 6 Committee members, including Liz Cheney: "For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail."
He did add the caveat that he would let his attorney general and FBI chief make that decision, but it allowed media outlets to lead with Trump wanting his political opponents behind bars. For what it’s worth, there’s no crime in lawmakers holding hearings, and this business about them withholding information seems like a real stretch.
Now back to the pardons. This mushrooming debate was obviously triggered by the president breaking his repeated promise with a sweeping, decade-long pardon of his son, a 54-year-old convicted criminal.
But then, as first reported by Politico, we learned that the Biden White House is debating whether to issue a whole bunch of preemptive pardons to people perceived to be potential targets of Trumpian retaliation.
But the inconvenient truth is that anyone accepting such a pardon would essentially admit to the appearance of being guilty. That’s why Sen.-elect Adam Schiff says he doesn’t want a pardon and won’t accept one.
But many of those potential recipients don’t even know they’re under consideration for sweeping pardons covering anything they may or may not have done.
It is a truly awful idea, and with Biden and Trump both agreeing that DOJ engages in unfair and selective prosecutions – which in the Republican’s case made his numbers go up – the stage is set for endless rounds of payback against each previous administration.
I remember first thinking about the unchecked power of presidential pardons when Bill Clinton delivered a last-minute one to ally and super-wealthy Marc Rich.
So it’s time to hear from Alexander Hamilton, who pushed it into the Constitution. Keep in mind that in that horse-and-buggy era, there were very few federal offenses because most law enforcement was done by the states.
In Federalist 74, published in 1788, Hamilton said a single person was better equipped than an unwieldy group, and such decisions should be broadly applied to help those in need.
"In seasons of insurrection or rebellion," the future Treasury secretary wrote, "there are often critical moments, when a welltimed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquillity of the commonwealth."
But another founding father, George Mason, opposed him, saying a president "may frequently pardon crimes which were advised by himself. It may happen, at some future day, that he will establish a monarchy, and destroy the republic. If he has the power of granting pardons before indictment, or conviction, may he not stop inquiry and prevent detection?"
An excellent argument, but Hamilton won out.
As Hamilton envisioned, George Washington, in 1794, granted clemency to leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion to calm a fraught situation.
Something tells me that Biden, Trump and their allies aren’t poring over the Federalist papers. But it’s still an awful lot of sweeping power to place in the hands of one chief executive, for which the only remedy is impeachment.
President Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, ending a saga that has lasted for more than six years, with wide-ranging investigations by the Justice Department and both chambers of Congress related to his conduct and business dealings.
Hunter Biden was found guilty of three felony firearm offenses stemming from Special Counsel David Weiss’ investigation. The first son was also charged with federal tax crimes regarding the failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. Before his trial, Hunter Biden entered a surprise guilty plea.
The charges carried up to 17 years behind bars. His sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 16.
Here’s a look back at how it all began:
The federal investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018.
The probe was predicated, in part, by suspicious activity reports (SARs) regarding foreign transactions. Those SARs, according to sources familiar with the investigation, involved funds from "China and other foreign nations."
Fox News first reported the existence of some type of federal investigation involving Hunter Biden in October 2020, ahead of the last presidential election. It became known then that in the course of an existing money laundering investigation, the FBI had subpoenaed the laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden.
Stories about the laptop were widely panned by Democrats and mainstream media outlets as Russian disinformation. At the time, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe confirmed that the laptop was "not part of some Russian disinformation campaign," but that claim was rejected by Democrats and many in the media.
Social media companies like Twitter and Facebook censored and limited the circulation of stories related to Hunter Biden's laptop before the 2020 presidential election.
Only in 2022 did media outlets verify that the laptop did belong to Hunter Biden and did hold legitimate records belonging to him.
Twitter, under the new ownership of Elon Musk, released records surrounding the company's decisions to block the circulation of the Hunter Biden stories – even though he had been under federal investigation at that point for nearly two years.
Hunter Biden confirmed the investigation into his "tax affairs" in December 2020, after his father was elected president.
But Hunter Biden’s business dealings were also, simultaneously, being investigated by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., in 2019. Specifically, the senators were investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings.
Grassley and Johnson released a report in September 2020 saying that Obama administration officials "knew" that Hunter Biden’s position on the board of Burisma was "problematic" and that it interfered "in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine."
Hunter Biden joined Burisma in April 2014 and, at the time, reportedly connected the firm with consulting firm Blue Star Strategies to help the natural gas company fight corruption charges in Ukraine. During the time Hunter Biden was on the board of the company, Joe Biden was vice president and was running U.S.-Ukraine relations and policy for the Obama administration.
Also in 2019, Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine came into the spotlight during the first impeachment of now-President-elect Donald Trump.
House Republicans wanted to call Hunter Biden to testify in the impeachment proceedings in the fall of 2019.
Trump was acquitted in Feb. 2020 on both articles of impeachment against him — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — after being impeached by the House of Representatives in December 2019.
Trump was impeached after a July 2019 phone call in which he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch investigations into the Biden family’s actions and business dealings in Ukraine, specifically Hunter Biden’s ventures with Burisma and Joe Biden’s successful effort to have former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin ousted.
At the same time as that call, Hunter Biden was under federal investigation, prompted by his suspicious foreign transactions.
Trump's request was regarded by Democrats as a quid pro quo because millions in U.S. military aid to Ukraine had been frozen. Democrats also said Trump was meddling in the 2020 presidential election by asking a foreign leader to look into a Democrat political opponent.
Republicans had been investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings, specifically with regard Burisma. House Republicans, who were in the minority at the time, made several requests to subpoena Hunter Biden for testimony and documents related to the impeachment of Trump and his business dealings that fell at the center of the proceedings.
Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma and Hunter Biden had a highly lucrative role on the board, receiving thousands of dollars per month. The then-vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin were not fired.
"I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.' … I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’" Biden recalled telling then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Biden recollected the conversation during an event for the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018.
Meanwhile, once President Biden took office, the House Oversight Committee led by Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., began investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings and the business dealings of the Biden family. Comer ultimately found that the Biden family and its associates had received more than $27 million from foreign individuals or entities since 2014.
But it wasn’t until 2023 that whistleblowers from the IRS, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, brought allegations of politicization in the federal probe of Hunter Biden to Congress.
The two alleged that political influence had infected prosecutorial decisions in the federal probe, which was led by Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who they said had requested to become a special counsel.
After Shapley and Ziegler testified publicly, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel to continue his investigation of the first son and, ultimately, bring federal charges against him in two separate jurisdictions — Delaware and California.
House Republicans continued to investigate allegations of politicization brought by Ziegler and Shapley, as well as findings related to the Biden family’s business dealings from Comer’s probe.
Comer, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith came together and launched an impeachment inquiry against President Biden to determine whether he had any involvement in his son’s business dealings. Biden repeatedly denied having any involvement, despite evidence placing him at meetings and on phone calls with his son and his foreign business partners.
In August, House lawmakers released their final report, spanning 292 pages, saying that Biden had engaged in "impeachable conduct." They said he had "abused his office" and "defrauded the United States to enrich his family."
Republicans said there is "overwhelming evidence" that Biden had participated in a "conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family." They alleged that the Biden family and their business associates had received tens of millions of dollars from foreign interests by "leading those interests to believe that such payments would provide them access to and influence with President Biden."
In the summer of 2023, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to federal gun charges as part of a plea deal that collapsed before a federal judge in Delaware. In a stunning reversal, Hunter Biden was forced to plead not guilty and sat for a trial this year.
Before his trial for federal tax crimes, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty.
President Biden’s pardon of his son came after months of vowing to the American people that he would not do so.
But on Sunday, the president announced a blanket pardon that applies to any offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden "has committed or may have committed" from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024.
"From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted," Biden said. "There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."
Biden added, "I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision."
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was bombarded with questions from reporters in the first televised press briefing since President Biden pardoned son Hunter Biden.
"The statement that he put out on Sunday when he made this decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, it's in his own voice," Jean-Pierre said after she was asked about Hunter Biden’s pardon by an Associated Press reporter.
"I think it takes you through his thinking. And he did. He wrestled with this. He wrestled with this, and again, he said in his statement, in his own voice, that he made that decision this past weekend."
The president and Jean-Pierre said unequivocally when asked over the summer that the president would not pardon his son.
Jean-Pierre insisted "circumstances have changed."
"Republicans said they weren't going to let up, weren't going to stop," she said. "Recently announced Trump appointees for law enforcement have said on the campaign that they were out for retribution, and I think we should believe their words, right? We should believe what they say."
She added that the president said in his statement that Hunter and the Biden family had been through "enough."
"And he wrestled with these circumstances, the change in circumstances, ultimately, and the combination of that … certainly led to the president changing his mind and issuing this pardon," she explained.
But reporters continued to press her on the issue, asking whether the American people were owed an apology. Jean-Pierre appeared to evade the question, instead urging people to read the president’s statement.
"He wrestled with it," she reiterated. "He wrestled with it and made this decision. That's what I can tell the American people.
"I think the American people understand, and I think they understand how difficult this decision would be. And I would actually add, and I think it's important to note here, as you're asking me these questions — important questions to ask — that there was a poll, a U.S. Gov poll that came out that, some of you all reported on it.
"And it said 64% of the American people agree with the pardon — 64% of the American people. So, we get a sense of where the American people are on this. Obviously, it's one poll, but it gives you a little bit of insight. Sixty-four percent is nothing to sneeze at."
She noted that some legal experts have said "no one would be criminally prosecuted with felony offenses with these facts," claiming Hunter Biden was politically targeted.
Hunter Biden was convicted on three felony charges related to illegally owning a gun while being a drug user. He also pleaded guilty in a federal tax case.
She was also asked if the president has concerns about his credibility regarding the pardon and about allegations he "misled the public."
"Virtually no one would be criminally prosecuted with family offenses, with these facts. Whether it's absent aggravated factors, similar charges are rarely brought," she said, again pointing to Biden's statement.
One reporter also noted that Biden has received "swift criticism" from members of his own party who call it a "setback," worrying that President-elect Trump and Republicans could use the pardon against them in the future.
Hunter Biden’s pardon from President Biden on Sunday doesn’t only apply to his tax and gun charges but gives him sweeping immunity from prosecution dating back ten years to the time Biden served as vice president.
Hunter Biden’s pardon applies to offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden "has committed or may have committed" from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024 which encapsulates several controversies surrounding the president’s son and his overseas business dealings.
BURISMA
Hunter Biden earned millions of dollars serving on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma after joining the company as legal counsel in the spring of 2014 before being elevated to the Board of Directors later that year.
Biden has claimed he "didn’t stand to gain anything" from the position, which he was appointed to without any experience in the industry, but Republicans have long alleged that Hunter and his father engaged in influence pedaling through Burisma.
The Bidens were accused by Republicans of having "coerced" Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky to pay them millions of dollarsin exchange for their help in getting the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company fired during the Obama administration.
"Why 2014?" Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy wrote on FoxNews.com this week. "Well, the most damning evidence of the Biden family influence-peddling business occurred in the last years of Joe Biden’s term as vice president – specifically, 2014 through 2016. That, of course, is when the Burisma hijinks began. Indeed, Hunter’s board seat on the corrupt energy company’s board was so manifestly tied to his father’s political influence that, as soon as Biden left office in 2017, Burisma slashed Hunter’s compensation in half."
In addition to the more than $50,000 a month then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son received while serving on Burisma’s board from April 2014 to April 2019, he was also apparently receiving lavish gifts from the company’s founder, according to emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop that have been verified by Fox News Digital.
CHINA BUSINESS DEALINGS
The pardon from President Biden also encapsulates the timeline of Hunter Biden's controversial business dealings in China, which Republicans have suggested also embodies part of the alleged influence pedaling scheme that was part of the failed effort to impeach President Biden.
The Biden family netted several million dollars from business dealings in China which began in the 2014-2016 years as part of Hunter Biden's relationship with two Chinese companies, Bohai Harvest RST investment enterprise and CEFC.
The House Oversight Committee told Fox News Digital earlier this year that it can "now confirm Joe Biden met with nearly every foreign national who funneled money to his son, including Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina, Romanian oligarch Kenes Rakishev, Burisma’s corporate secretary Vadym Pozharsky, Jonathan Li of BHR, and CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming."
Biden attended dinners at Washington D.C. restaurant Cafe Milano in Georgtown with Baturina, Rakishev and Pozharsky in 2014 and 2015. Biden also met with Li of BHR in China in 2013. Biden met with Ye at the meeting in 2017, according to testimony from Hunter Biden's ex-business partners Rob Walker and Devon Archer.
The Biden's connections with Chinese companies continued into 2017.
Joe Biden, on May 3, 2017,spoke at the conference, hosting "A Conversation with the 47th Vice President of the United States Joe Biden."
Just days after the May 2, 2017, meeting, the now-infamous May 13, 2017, email, which included a discussion of "remuneration packages" for six people in a business deal with a Chinese energy firm. The email appeared to identify Biden as "Chair / Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC," in a reference to now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.
The email includes a note that "Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate." A proposed equity split references "20" for "H" and "10 held by H for the big guy?" with no further details.
Tony Bobulinski, who worked with Hunter Biden to create the joint-venture SinoHawk Holdings with Chinese energy company CEFC, and said he met with Joe Biden in 2017,provided "unshakeable" testimony behind closed doors at the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees earlier this year and claimed that President Biden was the "big guy" referenced in the messages.
Additionally, Hunter Bidendemanded $10 million from a Chinese business associate to "further the interest" of his joint-venture with CEFC in 2017, saying that the "Bidens are the best I know at doing exactly" what the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party-linked firm wanted, according to a WhatsApp message House Oversight Committee.
FARA
Hunter Biden's overseas ties have alsosparked speculation that he violated public disclose laws under the Foreign Agents Registration Act by not registering as a foreign agent.
The Justice Departmentindirectly revealed that Hunter Biden was still under investigation for a potential violation of FARA during his first court appearance in July of last year, in which his "sweetheart" plea deal collapsed.
When asked by federal Judge Maryellen Noreika of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware whether the government could bring a charge against Hunter Biden related to FARA, the DOJ prosecutor replied, "Yes."
"Look for Jim Biden to be pardoned next," author Peter Schweizer posted on X this week. "Remember: the family was still under investigation under FARA as the pardon comes down. Might have implicated Joe."
ROMANIA
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee has scrutinized the Biden family's alleged business dealings in Romania dating back to 2015.
"On September 28, 2015, Vice President Biden welcomed Romanian President Klaus Iohannis to the White House," the House Oversight Committee's website state's.
"Within five weeks of this meeting, a Romanian businessman involved with a high-profile corruption prosecution in Romania, Gabriel Popoviciu, began depositing a Biden associate’s bank account, which ultimately made their way into Biden family accounts. Popoviciu made sixteen of the seventeen payments, totaling over $3 million, to the Biden associate account while Joe Biden was Vice President. Biden family accounts ultimately received approximately $1.038 million."
Fox News Digital reported last year that President Biden’s ambassador to the European Union offered advice to Hunter Biden in 2016 on a Romanian "client" who was on trial for corruption at the time.
OTHER OVERSEAS BUSINESS DEALINGS
Republicans in Congress have taken issue with Hunter Biden's business presence in other countries, including Kazakhstan and Russia.
In 2014, according to the House Oversight Committee, a Kazakhstani oligarch "used his Singaporean entity, Novatus Holdings, to wire one of Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca entities $142,300. The very next day—April 23, 2014—the Rosemont Seneca entity transferred the exact same amount of money to a car dealership for a car for Hunter Biden."
Also in 2014, the committee alleged that the Biden family and its associates received $3.5 million from Russia in payments from Baturina, Russia's richest woman.
TAX AND GUN CHARGES
President Biden's pardon of his son means that he will not face punishment after being convicted earlier this year of making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
In his tax case, Hunter faced another trial regarding three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses regarding the failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. As jury selection was about to kick off in Los Angeles federal court in September, Hunter entered a surprise guilty plea.
"Setting aside the fact that President Biden repeatedly stated he would not pardon his son, what I find most troubling is the sweeping nature of this pardon," Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski posted on X.
"Not only is Hunter Biden receiving clemency for multiple felony offenses—for crimes of which he was convicted and pleaded guilty to—he is also being granted immunity from any crimes he ‘has committed or may have committed’ over a more than ten-year period. This decision makes a mockery of our justice system. Everyone must be held accountable for their actions under the law."
Both President Biden and Hunter Biden have long denied any allegations of impropriety or allegations of influence peddaling and in his statement pardoning Hunter, President Biden argued that his son was only prosecuted because of his last name.
"Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter," Biden wrote in a statement. "From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted."
The president went on to claim that his son was "treated differently" by prosecutors.
"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," Biden added. "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."
Biden also referenced his son's battle with addiction and blamed "raw politics" for the unraveling of Hunter's plea deal.
"There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution," the 82-year-old father wrote. "In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman, Jessica Chasmar, and Emma Colton contributed to this report
President Biden's decision to go back on his word and pardon his son will be a permanent stain on his legacy, a presidential historian said Thursday.
Douglas Brinkley, a professor at Rice University argued to USA Today that there is "nothing positive" about Biden's decision. The pardon has already drawn criticism from Republicans and even Biden's allies in Congress.
"The problem that President Biden has legacy-wise is he said he wouldn't pardon his son," Brinkley said. "He gave his word, crossed his heart, and then, alas, he ended up doing it. It will strike some people as unfair and other people will say it’s a father doing what he had to."
He added that the pardon will only serve to be a "dark mark" on Biden's term moving forward.
Brinkley also noted the trouble Hunter has caused for his father's presidency since gaining office. Investigations into the first son have resounded through Congress and the media, providing a counterpoint to then-ongoing criminal investigations into President-elect Trump.
"Hunter Biden's been an albatross around his father's neck for the entire presidency," Brinkley said.
Brinkley goes on to argue that Trump's victory in November may have been the deciding factor, with Biden fearing that the incoming administration would target his son with more investigations.
Nevertheless, the move won him no allies. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, typically a staunch ally of the president, said he was "disappointed" in the decision and that he "cannot support it."
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., who chairs the Congressional Democratic Caucus, also said he was "disappointed" in the decision Wednesday. He went on to note that Biden had gone back on his word.
Biden had vowed multiple times that he would not intervene in his son's case, first in June when his son was convicted on three felony firearm charges, and then in September after Hunter pleaded guilty to federal charges of tax evasion.
"I am not going to do anything," Biden said this summer. "I will abide by the jury’s decision."
Hunter Biden was seen Wednesday afternoon in Santa Barbara sporting a T-shirt, jeans and baseball cap while picking up food from an Arby's.
The photos come after Biden announced Sunday evening that he would spare his son from being sentenced in a pair of separate court cases in which he was found guilty of illegally purchasing a gun and failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. Biden cited in his statement that Hunter Biden's convictions were politically motivated and a "miscarriage of justice."
"Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter," Biden wrote in a statement. "From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted."
He went on to say: "It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases," he continued.
"I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."
The pardon stands in stark contrast to what the president said earlier this years, vowing he would not pardon his son both before and after Hunter was found guilty in a June gun trial.
WHO ELSE MIGHT BIDEN PARDON AFTER HE SPARED HUNTER FROM SENTENCING?
"I am not going to do anything," Biden said after Hunter was convicted in the gun case. "I will abide by the jury’s decision."
Hunter Biden was found guilty June 11 of lying about his drug use when buying a gun in 2018. He was found guilty on three charges — making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
Hunter Biden had an extensive and well-documented history with addiction, which was best captured in his 2021 memoir "Beautiful Things," which walked readers through his spirals of crack cocaine use.
Hunter Biden faced another trial regarding three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses over his alleged failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes in a California court in September. As jury selection was about to kick off in Los Angeles federal court, Hunter entered a surprise guilty plea.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., called out President Biden for going back on his word and pardoning his son, Hunter, on Wednesday, calling the move "disappointing."
Aguilar, who chairs the House Democratic caucus, said he understood Biden's decision "as a father," but argued the pardon did not uphold the rule of law. Rep. Ted Lieu, who joined Aguilar in Wednesday's press conference, did not comment on the pardon.
"As a father, I understand it, and I get it. But as someone who has spent a lot of time at this podium talking about the importance of respecting the rule of law, it's disappointing," Aguilar said.
"The president gave his word and said publicly that he wasn't going to give a pardon and then he did, so that part is disappointing. I believed him when he said he wasn't," he said.
Aguilar joins a number of Democrats who have openly criticized Biden's pardon. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that he also was "disappointed" with Biden's decision.
"With everything the president and his family have been through, I completely understand the instinct to protect Hunter, but I took the president at his word," Newsom told Politico, adding that he "can't support the decision."
In a statement announcing the pardon, Biden took aim at what he described as a politically motivated investigation.
"No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong," the president wrote.
Biden had vowed multiple times that he would not intervene in his son's case, first in June when his son was convicted on three felony firearm charges, and then in September after Hunter pleaded guilty to federal charges of tax evasion.
"I am not going to do anything," Biden said this summer. "I will abide by the jury’s decision."
On the heels of President Joe Biden's move to issue a sweeping pardon for his son Hunter Biden, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., issued a statement suggesting the president should issue pardons for individuals who faced "aggressive prosecutions for nonviolent offenses."
"Throughout his life, President Joe Biden has fought to improve the plight of hardworking Americans struggling to live paycheck to paycheck," Jeffries said in the statement. "Many of these people have been aggressively prosecuted and harshly sentenced for nonviolent offenses, often without the benefit of adequate legal representation. Countless lives, families and communities have been adversely impacted, particularly in parts of Appalachia, Urban America and the Heartland.
"During his final weeks in office, President Biden should exercise the high level of compassion he has consistently demonstrated throughout his life, including toward his son, and pardon on a case-by-case basis the working-class Americans in the federal prison system whose lives have been ruined by unjustly aggressive prosecutions for nonviolent offenses," Jeffries continued.
"This moment calls for liberty and justice for all," he concluded.
The president's pardon of Hunter Biden covers more than a decade.
The "Full and Unconditional Pardon" covers "those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024 … "
Biden has earned blowback, including from some members of his own party.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., asserted in a post on X that the president's move "put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all."
"While as a father I certainly understand President @JoeBiden's natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he 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," the Democratic governor opined in a tweet.
President Biden pardoned son Hunter Biden Sunday after repeatedly vowing he would not spare him from sentencing in a pair of separate federal court cases.
Biden has just under 47 days remaining in the Oval Office before President-elect Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president.
As Biden’s term comes to an end, a handful of elected officials and others have called on the president to issue pardons for other Americans, including the suggestion of "preemptive pardons" for Democrats ahead of Trump’s second term.
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey claimed after the election he expects Trump to act in a "fascistic way" as president and called on Biden to pardon Democrats who could face prosecution under a second Trump administration.
"I think that, without question, Trump is going to try to act in a dictatorial way, in a fascistic way, in a revengeful first year at least of his administration toward individuals who he believes harmed him," Markey claimed during a local radio interview last month.
"If it’s clear by Jan. 19 that that is his intention, then I would recommend to President Biden that he provide those preemptive pardons to people because that’s really what our country is going to need next year."
Trump has long accused Democrats and the Biden administration of employing "lawfare" against him as he battled charges from racketeering to falsifying business records, with supporters such as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., proclaiming last month that "accountability is coming" for those who targeted Trump.
Under Markey’s argument, Biden could preemptively pardon Democrats who directly prosecuted Trump on charges Trump has slammed as "shams" and "witch hunts."
A handful of congressional Democrats — most notably representatives Ayanna Pressley, Mary Gay Scanlon and James Clyburn — called on Biden last month in a letter to issue sweeping pardons to convicts in a bid to "reunite families, address longstanding injustices in our legal system, and set our nation on the path toward ending mass incarceration."
The lawmakers requested the president pardon those who have languished in prison systems for years and rectify "draconian" sentences imposed on criminals. The letter specifically called for the president to consider pardons for the "elderly and chronically ill, those on death row, people with unjustified sentencing disparities, and women who were punished for defending themselves against their abusers."
"Now is the time to use your clemency authority to rectify unjust and unnecessary criminal laws passed by Congress and draconian sentences given by judges. The grant of pardons and commutations and the restoration of rights will undoubtedly send a powerful message across the country in support of fundamental fairness and furthering meaningful criminal justice reform," they wrote in a letter to Biden last month.
Outgoing Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a vocal critic of Trump's, said earlier this year Biden should have pardoned Trump from his indictments.
"[Biden] should have fought like crazy to keep this prosecution from going forward," Romney told MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle in May. "It was a win-win for Donald Trump.
"You may disagree with this, but had I been President Biden, when the Justice Department brought on indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him," he said. "I'd have pardoned President Trump. Why? Well, because it makes me, President Biden, the big guy and the person I pardoned a little guy."
Biden pardoning Trump is unlikely to happen and would only apply to his federal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Legal cases against Trump have stalled since his win last month.
Biden has pardoned 26 people during nearly four years in office, a review of DOJ data shows. The majority of those individuals were convicted of drug crimes, such as conspiracy to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine or conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and cocaine base.
In October, seven Senate Judiciary Committee members and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock sent a letter to Biden calling on him to commute sentences for individuals who would have been handed shorter sentences under the 2018 First Step Act. The First Step Act was a criminal justice reform bill Trump signed into law following bipartisan support that reduced mandatory minimum sentences for some drug crimes.
"This Administration has the opportunity to deliver justice to incarcerated people who were sentenced under overly harsh mandatory minimums that the bipartisan First Step Act corrected," Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, who signed the letter, told Politico earlier this year. "President Biden should heed our call and use the power of executive clemency while he has it."
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is again earning support from lawmakers and others to be pardoned after years of legal woes over his publication of classified military documents leaked to him by a source in 2010.
A bipartisan effort spearheaded by representatives James McGovern, D-Mass., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., called on Biden last week to pardon Assange and "send a clear message" that his administration will not target journalistic activity.
"We write, first, to express our appreciation for your administration's decision last spring to facilitate a resolution of the criminal case against publisher Julian Assange and to withdraw the related extradition request that had been pending in the United Kingdom," the lawmakers wrote to Biden. "This brought an end to Mr. Assange's protracted detention and allowed him to reunite with his family and return to his home country of Australia."
Assange reached a deal with the U.S. Justice Department to end his imprisonment in the U.K. over charges related to publishing classified military documents. He had spent years in the U.K. to avoid extradition to the U.S.
He pleaded guilty in June to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information and was sentenced to time served. He returned to his native Australia after the plea deal.
"The terms of Mr. Assange's plea agreement have now set a precedent that greatly deepens our concern," the lawmakers’ letter to Biden said. "A review of prosecutions under the Espionage Act makes clear that Mr. Assange's case is the first time the Act has been deployed against a publisher.
"A pardon would remove the precedent set by the plea and send a clear message that the U.S. government under your leadership will not target or investigate journalists and media outlets simply for doing their jobs."
Biden’s pardoning of his son Sunday followed the president saying earlier this year he would not pardon his son before and after Hunter was found guilty in a June gun trial.
"I am not going to do anything," Biden said after Hunter was convicted in the gun case. "I will abide by the jury’s decision."
Hunter Biden was found guilty June 11 of lying about his drug use when buying a gun in 2018. He was found guilty on three charges — making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
Hunter Biden had an extensive and well-documented history with addiction, which was best captured in his 2021 memoir "Beautiful Things," which walked readers through his spirals of crack cocaine use.
Hunter Biden faced another trial regarding three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses over his alleged failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes in a California court in September. As jury selection was about to kick off in Los Angeles federal court, Hunter entered a surprise guilty plea.
When grilled by the media about Biden pardoning his son after saying he would not take such an action, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president will make other pardon announcements in the coming weeks but did not provide details.
"As it relates to pardoning or any clemency, the president, as you know, at the end of the year, makes announcements. He’s thinking through that process very thoroughly," Jean-Pierre said Monday.
"I’m not going to get ahead of — of the president on this. But you could expect more announcements, more … pardons and clemency at the end of … this term."
Fox News Digital's Landon Mion contributed to this report.
The federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax case issued a sharp rebuke of President Biden's claim that his son was unfairly treated as well as the president's delivery method following the president's last-minute pardon.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, who is based in the Central District of California and was nominated by President-elect Trump, accused President Biden in a scathing five-page order of "rewriting history" with the pardon and suggested that the breadth of the pardon granted to his son is unconstitutional.
"The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history," he wrote.
The judge voiced his displeasure that the president alerted the judicial system of his order to pardon his son via a White House press release.
"Rather than providing a true and correct copy of the pardon with the notice, Mr. Biden provided a hyperlink to a White House press release presenting a statement by the President regarding the pardon and the purported text of the pardon," he wrote.
"In short, a press release is not a pardon," he continued.
Scarsi continued, reacting to the president's statement on his son's tax case: "the President asserts that Mr. Biden ‘was treated differently’ from others ‘who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions,’ implying that Mr. Biden was among those individuals who untimely paid taxes due to addiction. But he is not."
"According to the President, ‘[n]o reasonable person who looks at the facts of [Mr. Biden’s] cases can reach any other conclusion than [Mr. Biden] was singled out only because he is [the President’s] son.’ But two federal judges expressly rejected Biden’s arguments that the Government prosecuted Mr. Biden because of his familial relation to the President. And the President’s own Attorney General and Department of Justice personnel oversaw the investigation leading to the charges," Scarsi wrote.
"In the President’s estimation, this legion of federal civil servants, the undersigned included, are unreasonable people," he said.
The judge said he would dispose of the case once he receives the official pardon from "the appropriate executive agency."
He also vacated Hunter Biden’s sentencing, which was scheduled for Dec. 16. The charges carried up to 17 years behind bars, but the first son would likely have faced a much shorter sentence under federal sentencing guidelines.
"Subject to the following discussion, the Court assumes the pardon is effective and will dispose of the case. The Supreme Court long has recognized that, notwithstanding its nearly unlimited nature, the pardon power extends only to past offenses," he wrote.
Hunter Biden, 54, has had a busy year in court, kicking off his first trial in Delaware in June, when he faced three felony firearm offenses, before he pleaded guilty in a separate felony tax case in September.
President Biden pardoning his son is a departure from his previous remarks to the media over the summer when he insisted he would not pardon the first son.
"Yes," President Biden told ABC News when asked if he would rule out pardoning Hunter ahead of his guilty verdict in the gun case.
Days later, following a jury of Hunter’s peers finding him guilty of three felony firearm offenses, the president again said he would not pardon his son.
"I am not going to do anything," Biden said after Hunter was convicted. "I will abide by the jury’s decision."
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
Fox News Digital's Emma Colton and Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden’s sweeping pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, touched off a flurry of fresh legal speculation Tuesday over how, or if, the younger Biden can move to assert his Fifth Amendment privileges that protect against self-incrimination — and how the broad immunity granted to Hunter could be twisted against him.
While Hunter Biden is indeed shielded against prosecution for any federal offenses he "committed or may have committed" between Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024, those around him are not — which means that Hunter Biden could theoretically be called on to testify in any potential cases brought against family members or others in his inner circle.
In these cases, Hunter Biden’s pardon could actually limit his ability to assert Fifth Amendment privileges, since he is no longer at risk of facing criminal charges.
However, the pardon applies only to federal crimes, not state crimes, and it remains unclear how, or if, Republicans could move to act on this possible loophole in the weeks and months ahead.
Still, the question of Fifth Amendment protections does have outsize importance as Republicans prepare to regain the majority in both chambers of Congress in January, ramping up the possibility of potential GOP-led investigations into the outgoing president.
In an interview Monday night on Newsmax, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said he plans to discuss the issue of Hunter Biden's Fifth Amendment privileges with Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi.
"I look forward to talking to attorney general Bondi about this," the Kentucky Republican said.
"We still have information that we've requested that we never received," Comer said, adding that in his view, the White House "is still to this day obstructing rightful evidence that we should have obtained."
Any investigations into Biden’s family after he leaves office would likely be criticized by Democrats as both futile and a waste of taxpayer money, given the nature of earlier investigations, Hunter’s own pardon and Biden’s own lame-duck status.
Comer’s office did not respond to a question from Fox News Digital on whether the House Oversight Committee is planning to investigate Biden’s action in the next congressional session, or their views on Hunter’s ability to plead the Fifth.
But the questions about this potential loophole come just days after President Joe Biden announced the sweeping clemency grant for his only surviving son.
Earlier Tuesday, the federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s gun case in Delaware announced the termination of further court proceedings, including a planned sentencing date in December. Earlier this year, a Delaware jury found Hunter guilty on all three federal felony firearm charges brought against him.
In terminating the proceedings, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika stopped short of dismissing the case outright, as requested by Hunter Biden's legal team.
In September, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to separate federal charges of tax evasion in California, which the pardon also covers.
The judge in that case, Judge Mark Scarsi, has not yet announced whether he will terminate the proceedings against Hunter or dismiss the case in full.
A Democratic U.S. congressman on Monday said it appears that certain people are "above the law" after President Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, despite repeatedly saying he would not give his son a pass.
Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., responded to Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter on social media, blasting the president’s own words from earlier this year that "no one is above the law."
"Let’s just say the quiet part out loud, certain Americans are indeed above the law and influence is always for sale," Phillips wrote on X. "It’s time for the exhausted majority to condemn and confront legalized corruption."
President Biden issued a sweeping pardon for Hunter Biden on Sunday after he had repeatedly said he would not do so. The first son had been convicted in two separate federal cases earlier this year. He pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in September, and was convicted of three felony gun charges in June after lying on a mandatory gun purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
The president argued in a statement that Hunter was "singled out only because he is my son" and that there was an effort to "break Hunter" in order to "break me."
Biden had stated on record multiple times that he would not pardon Hunter should a jury convict his son.
Phillips, who unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for president, argued that perhaps both Hunter Biden and Trump may not have been charged in their respective criminal cases under different circumstances.
"Two things can be true at once: Neither Hunter Biden nor Donald Trump would have been charged with certain crimes had they not been political figures," he wrote. "Pardoning powers have been abused by Trump and now Biden, and must be reformed."
Reporters grilled White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday, asking whether Biden and his surrogates lied to the American people. Jean-Pierre responded, "One thing the president believes is to always be truthful with the American people," and repeatedly pointed to Biden’s own statement on the matter.
Biden has yet to take questions from reporters on why he broke his pledge to Americans and decided to pardon the first son.
Fox News Digital's Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
The federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s gun trial terminated further court proceedings in his case on Tuesday, in the wake of President Biden’s sweeping pardon that shields his son from being prosecuted for all offenses that he "has committed or may have committed" from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024.
U.S. Judge Maryellen Noreika, the presiding judge in Biden’s trial in Delaware, announced Tuesday the termination of all further proceedings in the case, citing the clemency grant signed by the outgoing president.
Judge Noreika stopped short of dismissing the case outright, however, as requested by Hunter’s legal team.
A Delaware jury found Hunter guilty this summer on all three federal felony firearm charges that had been brought before the court by prosecutors.
Prior to the sweeping pardon announcement, his sentencing date had been scheduled for Dec. 12.
In announcing the pardon, President Biden criticized the unfair investigation and prosecution of his son, a process he said was "infected" by politics and led to a "miscarriage of justice."
"No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong," the president said in a statement Sunday.
However, some critics also noted the pardon broke with Biden's longtime promises not to pardon his son and risks further eroding the public's view of the Justice Department.
Hunter also pleaded guilty on tax evasion charges in California, which the pardon also covers.
The judge in that case, Judge Mark Scarsi, has not yet announced whether he will terminate the proceedings against Hunter or dismiss the case in full.
This is a breaking news story. Check back soon for updates.
Sen. Jon Tester is getting testy with reporters during his remaining weeks in Congress after being booted from his long-held Montana Senate seat.
President Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, on Sunday, absolving him of any charges for crimes he "committed or may have committed" between January 2014 and December 2024.
On Monday, Tester was asked about Biden's controversial move to pardon his son, to which the senator offered a rather blunt response.
"I’m one month from getting the f--- out of here," he said with a smile, according to CNN and other outlets. "Ask somebody who counts."
The comment comes nearly one month after the three-term Montana Democrat was ousted by Republican Navy SEAL Sen.-elect Tim Sheehy in one of the most closely watched races of the 2024 cycle.
While Tester did not answer the question, Democrats on Capitol Hill have been speaking out against Biden's decision to relieve his son from facing any potential federal charges over the course of the past decade.
"President Biden’s decision to pardon his son was wrong. A president's family and allies shouldn't get special treatment. This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests," Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich, wrote in a post on X.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., also said that Biden's decision "further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all."
Efforts to reach Tester's office for comment at press time were unsuccessful.
