New Delhi: US President Joe Biden has granted a full and unconditional pardon to his son Hunter, for any and all crimes committed between 2014 and 2024, including three federal felony convictions for illegally purchasing a gun, in a remarkable reversal from his months-long promise not to do so.
In a statement Sunday to the media, Biden defended his decision, saying it was his belief that the cases against Hunter were politically motivated and the plea deal which was agreed to was unravelled due to efforts of Republican politicians.
“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 said in a statement published by the White House.
Biden added: “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, unravelled in the courtroom–with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process.”
The pardon by Biden brings the legal struggles of Hunter Biden to an end. The younger Biden has long faced a number of issues–from struggling with addiction to using his family name to make deals, which further helped fuel his addictions.
Biden’s announcement made on the Sunday after Thanksgiving–an important celebration in America–was received by his critics with a hint of disdain.
President-elect Donald Trump called the pardon issued by Biden “an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
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The legal struggles of Hunter Biden
Born in 1970 to Biden and his then wife Neilla, Hunter lost his mother and sister at the age of two in a car accident. According to reports, the younger Biden has acknowledged that he started drinking alcohol as a teenager and using drugs during his college years.
In 2013, Hunter signed up to the US Navy Reserves, but was discharged the next year after testing positive for cocaine. According to media reports, after the death of his elder brother Beau Biden in 2015, Hunter began to drink excessively, and later divorced from his wife.
At the time, he began a relationship with his deceased brother’s partner Hallie, who testified that Hunter had purchased and abused drugs in her presence. It was during this period in 2018, when he purchased a handgun–federal prosecutors have claimed he lied on the purchase form by declaring he was not abusing drugs.
This led to three felony convictions in Delaware. At the time of his conviction, the US President and his administration maintained there were no plans to pardon Hunter. Furthermore, Biden as recently as June promised to abide by the decision of the jury in Hunter’s conviction.
In September, Hunter pleaded guilty to nine indictments including three felony tax offences and six misdemeanor tax offences. According to the original indictment, Hunter “engaged in a four-year scheme” between 2016 and 2019, where he did not pay close to $1.4 million in federal taxes.
The US Department of Justice’s statement after his guilty plea accuses Hunter of spending millions of dollars rather than paying taxes, and willfully failing to pay taxes on time in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
The guilty plea by Hunter was accepted by the federal court in Los Angeles, and he was scheduled to be sentenced on 16 December.
Those pardoned before Hunter
Just before leaving the presidency, Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton from charges relating to the possession of cocaine.
President-elect Trump had pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, from a conviction related to tax fraud. Charles Kushner has currently been nominated by Trump as the US envoy to France.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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