Outgoing Biden grants his son 'full, unconditional pardon'

BEIJING - US President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden on Sunday night, reversing his earlier stance of not using executive power to pardon or reduce his son's sentence.

"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 ... It is clear that Hunter was treated differently," Biden said in a statement.

The president said his political opponents in Congress "instigated" the charges "to attack me and oppose my election".

"No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son -- and that is wrong," he said.

Biden said he had decided to issue the executive grant of clemency for his son "for those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from Jan 1, 2014, through Dec 1, 2024".

Back in 2014, Hunter joined the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company that has figured prominently in investigations of his past business dealings, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Hunter was convicted in June for purchasing a firearm in 2018 while addicted to crack cocaine, marking the first time a sitting president's child has been convicted of a crime. He is set to be sentenced on Dec 12.

He is also scheduled to be sentenced on Dec 16 for federal tax evasion charges, to which he pleaded guilty in September. The charges involved over 1.4 million US dollars in unpaid taxes.

Special counsel David Weiss, who served as the attorney for Delaware under former US President Donald Trump, launched an investigation into Hunter in 2018 and brought both indictments in 2023.

Through pardoning his son, Biden has ratted on a public pledge that he made repeatedly before and after dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, CNN reported, adding that the president and his top White House spokesperson said unequivocally, including after Trump won the 2024 election, that he would not pardon Hunter or commute his sentence.

President-elect Trump posted on his social media platform, saying "Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!"

"In pardoning his son Hunter Biden on Sunday night, the incumbent president sounded a lot like his successor by complaining about selective prosecution and political pressure, questioning the fairness of a system that Mr. Biden had until now long defended," the New York Times reported.

In a statement by Trump's transition team to Fox News, Steven Cheung, Trump's spokesperson, said the Democrat-controlled Department of Justice and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system. "That system of justice must be fixed, and due process must be restored for all Americans."

This is not the first case of a US president pardoning a family member.

In 2001, Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton for a 1985 cocaine-related offense. In 2020, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, his daughter Ivanka's father-in-law and the selected next US ambassador to France, who had been convicted of witness tampering, tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions.