Hunter Biden (actual identify: Robert Hunter Biden) is making headlines once more over his controversial gun and tax-related prices. For years, his father, President Joe Biden, has repeatedly said he wouldn’t difficulty a proper pardon for his son. But as Joe’s presidency involves an finish quickly, might he change his thoughts?
In a current assertion, President Biden claimed Hunter was “handled otherwise” and that “the fees in his circumstances happened solely after a number of of [Joe’s] political opponents in Congress instigated them to assault [Joe] and oppose [his] election” in 2020.
Learn extra about Hunter’s federal prices and pardon, beneath.
Who Are Joe Biden’s Children?
In addition to Hunter, President Biden is a father to daughter Ashley Biden. His different kids — Beau and Naomi “Amy” Biden — are deceased. Beau died from mind most cancers in 2015 on the age of 46, and Naomi died in a automobile accident together with her mom, Joe’s first spouse, Neilia, in 1972. Naomi was only a yr previous.
What Was Hunter Biden Convicted of?
Hunter was convicted of a number of prices in two separate circumstances: one associated to taxes and one other associated to gun prices. In June 2024, Hunter was convicted of three felony prices associated to a 2018 buy of a revolver; the jury discovered him responsible of mendacity to a gun vendor by falsely claiming on an utility that he was not a drug consumer and illegally possessing the gun for 11 days, in line with the Associated Press.
In September 2024, Hunter pleaded responsible to 3 felony tax offenses and 6 misdemeanor tax offenses, in line with the U.S. Department of Justice. Per his federal indictment within the tax case, Hunter was concerned in a four-year scheme to keep away from paying round $1.4 million in federal taxes that he owed from 2016 by way of 2019.
Hunter was awaiting sentencing for the tax and gun-related prices. The sentencing was scheduled to happen in December 2024.
Did Joe Biden Pardon His Son Hunter?
In an official assertion, President Biden formally pardoned his son Hunter on December 1, 2024. Per the Associated Press, Joe insisted that, from the primary day of his presidency, he mentioned he “wouldn’t intervene with the Justice Department’s decision-making.”
“And I saved my phrase whilst I’ve watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” the president identified. “Without aggravating elements like use in against the law, a number of purchases, or shopping for a weapon as a straw purchaser, individuals are nearly by no means dropped at trial on felony prices solely for a way they crammed out a gun kind. Those who had been late paying their taxes due to severe addictions, however paid them again subsequently with curiosity and penalties, are sometimes given non-criminal resolutions. It is obvious that Hunter was handled otherwise.”
Joe went on to allege that Hunter’s prices “happened solely after a number of of [the president’s] political opponents in Congress instigated them to assault [him] and oppose [his] election.”
“No cheap one that seems on the info of Hunter’s circumstances can attain every other conclusion than Hunter was singled out solely as a result of he’s my son – and that’s improper,” Joe continued. “There has been an effort to interrupt Hunter – who has been 5 and a half years sober, even within the face of unrelenting assaults and selective prosecution. In attempting to interrupt Hunter, they’ve tried to interrupt me – and there’s no motive to imagine it’s going to cease right here. Enough is sufficient.”
At the top of the president’s assertion, Joe added that he has “adopted a easy precept: [to] simply inform the American individuals the reality.”
“Here’s the reality: I imagine within the justice system, however as I’ve wrestled with this, I additionally imagine uncooked politics has contaminated this course of and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and as soon as I made this choice this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it additional,” President Biden mentioned, earlier than concluding, “I hope Americans will perceive why a father and a president would come to this choice.”