By Elsa Ohlen

President Joe Biden issued a full and unconditional pardon for his son Hunter Biden Sunday who had been facing criminal convictions in California and Delaware on gun and tax charges -- which could have resulted in a prison sentence.

His father's pardon covers offenses Hunter Biden committed or may have committed dating back to Jan. 1, 2014.

While Joe Biden has said previously he wouldn't interfere with the Department of Justice's decision-making, he said in a statement Sunday he has watched Hunter Biden "being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted" and that politics had infected the justice system and "led to a miscarriage of justice."

"Hunter was singled out only because he is my son -- and that is wrong. 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 wrote in a statement.

President-elect Donald Trump called the pardon an "abuse and miscarriage of Justice" in a post on the social-media platform Truth Social.

Some Democrats have also criticized the pardon. "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," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wrote on X.

So far during his presidency, Biden has now pardoned 26 people. During Trump's term, the then-president pardoned a total of 144 people, 74 of which in the final hours in office.

Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com

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December 02, 2024 07:01 ET (12:01 GMT)

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