President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday night reacted to the announcement of President Joe Biden's pardon of his son Hunter Biden, who faced sentencing this month on gun crime and tax convictions.
"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!" Trump wrote on Truth Social, referencing some of the January 6 rioters, whom he has suggested could be pardoned.
Biden's decision comes just weeks before Hunter is scheduled for sentencing, and less than two months before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
"Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter," the president said in a statement. It is a "full and unconditional pardon," according to a copy of the executive grant of clemency.
By pardoning his son, Joe Biden has gone back on a public promise he made repeatedly before and after exiting the 2024 presidential race. Both the president and his top White House spokesperson had stated unequivocally, even after Trump's 2024 election victory, that Hunter would not receive a pardon or a commutation of his sentence.
The pardon spares Hunter from sentencing for his crimes and eliminates the possibility of imprisonment. Judges overseeing his cases are now expected to cancel the sentencing hearings scheduled for December 12 for the gun case and December 16 for the tax case.
The president said his political opponents "instigated" the charges placed against Hunter "to attack me and oppose my election."
He said in his statement on Sunday, "I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice. ... I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."
Hunter Biden was convicted by a jury in June of illegally purchasing and possessing a firearm, following a harrowing trial that exposed his struggles with drug addiction and family turmoil. In September, he pleaded guilty to nine tax offenses related to $1.4 million in unpaid taxes, which he failed to settle while spending on escorts, strippers, luxury cars, and drugs.
The investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018 under special counsel David Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for Delaware, who filed both indictments in 2023. Despite having the presidential authority to intervene by halting the investigation or dismissing the charges, Joe Biden said at the time that he will remain uninvolved in the legal proceedings.
