By Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy suggested on Thursday that a potential “clemency package” might be on the table for President-elect Donald Trump and Hunter Biden, potentially freeing both men from their respective legal challenges.
If enacted, such a clemency package would be unprecedented, shielding both an incoming president and the son of a sitting president from ongoing legal jeopardy and potentially paving the way for a period of national reconciliation after an intensely divisive election season.
Discussing this idea on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” McCarthy explained that special counsel Jack Smith may be preparing to conclude his cases against Trump. Smith had previously charged Trump with mishandling classified documents and with actions related to contesting the 2020 election, wrote The Daily Caller.
“I also think from what I can gather that sort of a deal is coming together because everyone understands that President Biden is going to pardon his son Hunter. That is not going to go down well — at least if it’s in a vacuum because, of course, he vowed he wouldn’t do it, not that anyone took that too seriously,” McCarthy said on “Fox and Friends.” “But I think it goes down easier for the country if it’s kind of like a clemency package where the Biden-Harris Justice Department dismisses the two cases against former President Trump, President-elect Trump, because they can’t be prosecuted at this point anyhow. He will be the sitting president of the United States. Then Biden pardons Hunter.”
“I think the signal that sends hopefully to these progressive prosecutors at the state level is that, you know, it’s time to turn the page from lawfare, which proved to be a disaster for the Democrats, i think, in the election,” McCarthy said.
“Fox and Friends” co-host Steve Doocy said Biden pardoning Trump could make a pardon of Hunter Biden “more palatable” for the country.
“The other thing that is important here in dismissing the case, so you dismiss it at the Justice Department level rather than having to pardon the incoming president, which is almost like an admission of guilt that Trump doesn’t want to make,” McCarthy said. “If they dismiss it and it’s the Biden-Harris Justice Department that dismisses it. I think the judge goes along with it more easily. Whereas if Trump’s Justice Department has to dismiss the case, they may get pushback from Judge Chutkan.”
The White House has insisted that for months that Joe Biden would not pardon his son and they doubled down on Thursday, noted The Hill.
“Our answer stands, which is no,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
Asked about the possibility of a commutation, Jean-Pierre said, “That’s not what we’re going to do.”
Hunter was convicted in June for falsely stating he was not using illegal drugs on a firearm purchase application six years ago and for illegally possessing the gun, marking the first criminal conviction of a sitting president’s child. In September, he pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges, avoiding a second trial this year just before it was set to begin, and a federal judge has postponed his sentencing until December 4.
The president’s son has been accused of seeking government assistance while his father was the vice president.
The New York Times reported over the summer that records, which the Biden administration had withheld for years, revealed that Hunter Biden wrote at least one letter to the U.S. ambassador to Italy in 2016 requesting assistance for Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where he served as a board member.
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