(Adnkronos) – Joe Biden has granted a “full and unconditional” pardon to his son Hunter Biden for federal gun and tax convictions. The US president announced this in a statement released by the White House on Sunday. The decision marks a U-turn for the president, who had repeatedly said he would not use his executive power to pardon his son or commute his sentence.
Hunter Biden was due to be sentenced on federal gun charges on December 12 and on the tax case four days later. In the statement, Joe Biden said he had long maintained that he would not “interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making and I have kept my word even as I have seen my son be selectively and unfairly persecuted.” But, he argued, “it is clear that Hunter has been treated differently,” adding that the charges in the case “only surfaced after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.”
Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in Delaware in June to three felony counts related to the purchase of a handgun in 2018. On the gun purchase form, he falsely wrote that he was not a user of illicit drugs. He pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges in Los Angeles in September, opting for an “open” plea, in which a defendant pleads guilty to charges and leaves his sentencing fate in the hands of the judge. The tax charges carried up to 17 years in prison and the gun charges carried up to 25 years, though federal sentencing guidelines were expected to call for far shorter times and it was possible that the president’s son would avoid prison altogether.
