By Joe Biden was lying. Everyone around him knew he was lying, but the White House and mainstream media outlets maintained the lie, likely in hopes of helping Kamala Harris. In a dramatic reversal of his earlier stance, President Joe Biden has issued a full and unconditional pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, shielding him from legal consequences related to federal gun charges and tax evasion convictions. The decision, announced Sunday evening, marks a significant and controversial use of presidential clemency.
In a statement explaining his decision, Biden said, “I believe in the justice system, but raw politics has infected this process, leading to a miscarriage of justice. Once I made this decision, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this conclusion.”
NBC News reports that Biden and his staff have purposely been lying to the American people about his intentions.
Biden, 82, is using his pardon power to ensure Hunter Biden does not spend time in jail as he nears the end of his term in the White House and has no future election to face. In recent months, he has said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence.
“I will not pardon him,” he said in June after a jury found Hunter Biden guilty on three federal gun charges.
The president has discussed pardoning his son with some of his closest aides at least since Hunter Biden’s conviction in June, said two people with direct knowledge of the discussions about the matter. They said it was decided at the time that he would publicly say he would not pardon his son even though doing so remained on the table.
The White House responded to this reporting nearly 24 hours after publication to deny this reporting in a written statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre that reiterated Biden made the pardon decision this past weekend.
Asked last week whether the president is still committed to not granting clemency for his son, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said: “The president has spoken to this.” Pressed about whether Biden’s position has changed, Bates replied, “I don’t have anything to add what he said already.”
The breadth of Hunter’s pardon is “extraordinary,” explained The Washington Post. The president’s son had been scheduled for sentencing on December 12 and December 16 for the respective charges. The pardon covers offenses from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024, ensuring he faces no further legal penalties for actions during that period.
The newspaper wrote that “Biden didn’t just pardon his son for his convictions on tax and gun charges, but for any “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.”
That’s a nearly 11-year period during which any federal crime Hunter Biden might have committed — and there are none we are aware of beyond what has already been adjudicated — can’t be prosecuted. It notably covers when he was appointed to the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma in 2014 all the way through Sunday, well after the crimes for which he was prosecuted.
Hunter Biden hasn’t been charged for his activities with regard to Burisma or anything beyond his convictions, and nothing in the public record suggests criminal charges could be around the bend. Congressional Republicans have probed the Burisma matter and Hunter Biden extensively and could seemingly have uncovered chargeable crimes if they existed, but haven’t done so.
Even still, the scope of the pardon is remarkable….Hunter Biden’s pardon ‘isn’t tied to any special counsel investigation or charging document,’ Sam Morison, who spent 13 years working for the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, said via email. ‘The only pardon grant that comes close is Ford’s pardon of Nixon for any crimes he may have committed from 1969 to 1974, which on its face would have included crimes (if any) unrelated to Watergate.’”
The breadth has seen many wondering what Joe Biden knows about Hunter’s actions in Ukraine and whether or not the president issued the pardon not only to protect his son, but himself. The Daily Signal noted, for instance, that “the timeline raises important questions because it extends far beyond the scope of both the gun and tax prosecutions. The gun charges trace back to Hunter Biden’s claim in May 2018, when filling out a gun-registration form, that he was not addicted to drugs. The tax charges trace back to the younger Biden’s failure to pay taxes and various acts to avoid tax assessments beginning in 2016 and lasting through 2019.
Why begin the pardon two years predating anything for which the son had been charged? The answer is obvious: Joe Biden either suspects that his son will face charges for something between 2014 and 2016 or he knows that some of his son’s activities during that period were not exactly aboveboard.”
An interesting result of the pardon comes from the fact that Hunter Biden no longer has 5th Amendment rights and could be compelled to testify against his father, if Congress or the Department of Justice looked into “the Big Guy.”
Biden’s pardon for his son now removes Hunter’s ability to refuse to testify in any investigation of others potentially involved in his activities. And Hunter can be prosecuted for perjury or misleading investigators in such an effort as that crime would occur after the pardon…
— Henry Olsen (@henryolsenEPPC) December 2, 2024
News Nation reported that “Hunter Biden still has his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination when it comes to any state charges or potential future charges that don’t fall under the purview of Joe Biden’s pardon, trial attorney John Fishwick told News Nation.
However, since he is essentially immune from any charges during a ten-year period, he no longer needs to assert his Fifth Amendment rights and that opens the door for him to be called upon in investigations of others including his father, he said.
Hunter Biden can be compelled to testify against his father because he is no longer at risk of criminal prosecution under federal law, Fishwick said.
“The pardon that his father gave him is incredibly broad, which would cover everything so there’s a strong argument that he could be compelled to testify because he cannot incriminate himself,'” he explained.
Over the summer, Trump said he would reopen an investigation into the Joe Biden and his family.
[Read More: Democrat Brings Weaponry To Capitol Hill]
