Does Biden's pardon of his son put family above principle?published at 19:01 Greenwich Mean Time 2 December 2024

19:01 GMT 2 December 2024

John Sudworth
North America Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Joe Biden announced the full and unconditional pardon of his son at the end of the Thanksgiving weekend - a time, for Americans, all about family.

There is no other conclusion, his statement said, than that his son was politically targeted because of who he is.

Despite that claim of certainty, it’s a remarkable turnaround for the president following multiple denials that he would pardon his son.

Hunter had failed to disclose on a federal firearms application that, at the time in 2018, he was addicted to crack cocaine. He was due to be sentenced next week. His sentencing for separate tax offences was due the following week.

President-elect Donald Trump was quick to respond, calling the decision "an abuse" and "a miscarriage of justice." Republicans are, unsurprisingly, attacking what they see as a great hypocrisy – having long listened to Democrats dismiss Trump’s claim that justice was being weaponised against him

Biden's statement acknowledges that this was not an easy decision, he had “wrestled” with it he said. But in the dying days of his presidency, even some Democrats are voicing their concern that he has done what he said he never would and put family above principle.

We are wrapping up our live coverage of Hunter Biden's pardon, but you can can read more analysis here on how Biden’s sweeping pardon for his son rewrites the rules.

The BBC's Americast team has joined Matt Chorley on 5 Live to answer your questions about where Hunter Biden's pardoning leaves America's justice system and Joe Biden's reputation. The team also discuss whether Biden's decision gives Donald Trump free reign to pardon who he wants when he returns to office.

On the episode, listener Michelle asks whether Biden pardoning his son proves to Americans that there is one law for them and another law for others.

The BBC's social media investigations correspondent Marianna Spring answers: "I think we are at this point... people feel really disillusioned with the establishment and how it works.

"That feeds into some of conspiratorial thinking, and also some of it is legit - they just feel like there is a rule for everyone else and not for them. How does that work and what does (it) do for trust and faith in politics?"

• Listen to the whole discussion on BBC Sounds

Madeline Halpert
US reporter

President Joe Biden chose to issue one of the broadest possible pardons for his son, spanning a 10-year period to ensure Hunter would not spend any time behind bars or face future prosecution, experts say.

"The president's pardon power is absolute, so there is nothing Donald Trump or Republicans can do to stop it," Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who disagrees with the pardon, tells me.

Rahmani takes issue with the president going ahead with a pardon of his son, despite repeatedly saying he would not. Rahmani believes Biden may have been mischaracterising his plans and eyeing a pardon all along.

"President Biden was disingenuous this entire time when he said that he would not pardon his son," the former federal prosecutor says.

Image source, Getty Images

As Hunter Biden's legal challenges have piled up in recent years, several members of his family have been by his side to express their support.

During Biden's federal gun trial in Wilmington, Delaware in June, First Lady Jill Biden travelled from as far as Paris, France to attend several days of the court proceedings.

"She's his mother, and he's on trial, so of course she wants to be there as much as humanly possible," the first lady's communications director said at the time.

President Joe Biden stayed close to his son then too, even though he was not present in court. He travelled to Wilmington multiple times to be with his son outside of the proceedings and spoke with him daily, according to spokespeople.

Hunter's wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, as well as his sister, Ashley Biden, were often seen at the trial as well.

Image source, US Pool

First Lady Jill Biden has been asked about the pardoning of her stepson at a children's Christmas event at the White House.

While her microphone had been turned off as she replied to reporters after giving a speech, the first lady appeared to say, "Of course I support the pardoning of my son".

We've just heard from more Democrats criticising Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son, Hunter.

Michael Bennet, a senator from Colorado, posted on X, external: "President Biden's decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans' faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all."

Democratic Representative Jared Golden echoed Bennet's concerns.

He told Axios, external: "As a father, I understand the desire to do everything you can to help and protect your children, but I worry such a sweeping pardon for a close family member sets an unfortunate precedent that undermines trust in the office of the president."

Earlier this year, jurors who convicted Hunter Biden of gun crimes told the BBC they did not think about his father or politics when reaching their decision.

"I was never thinking of President Joe Biden," one juror told the BBC shortly after the verdict in June, which found the younger Biden guilty on all three charges in his federal gun trial.

"Out of all the jurors, nobody mentioned anything about political motivations,” the male juror, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “Somehow, you block that out of your mind."

Two other jurors told CNN that they did not feel any pressure during deliberations, despite the high-profile nature of the trial and the fact it took place during an election year.

The historic verdict meant Biden became the first son of a sitting US president to be criminally convicted.

White House press secretary grilled by reporterspublished at 16:53 Greenwich Mean Time 2 December 2024

16:53 GMT 2 December 2024

Jessica Parker
North America correspondent

In a long and, at points, slightly torturous exchange aboard Air Force One – the President’s press secretary fielded questions from journalists about Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter.

For much of the time, Karine Jean-Pierre regurgitated last night’s long statement from the president. This situation is awkward for her, as well as her boss.

Jean-Pierre has previously denied, on camera, that this kind of familial pardon was on the cards.

Today, she would not say whether Biden had discussed the decision directly with Hunter over the holiday weekend, before making the announcement.

Any image of a powerful father telling his son that he’d make his legal worries go away, over a Thanksgiving turkey, might be one the White House would wish to avoid.

Image source, Getty Images

We've just been hearing from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who has been answering questions about Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son.

Here's a quick recap of what was said.

• She mainly referred to the president's statement, repeating key lines that he had wrestled with the decision and that it had been made at the weekend
• When questioned about Biden's assertion that he had faith in the justice, while also saying politics had "infected" the process, Jean-Pierre said that "both things can be true"
• She also said that Joe Biden was "thinking through" other clemency cases and that more announcements on that could be expected before the end of his term in January

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has wrapped up the briefing aboard Air Force One, but before she did there was a question about future pardons and clemencies.

She says Joe Biden is thinking through the process “very thoroughly”.

“There's a process in place, obviously,” she says, adding: “I'm not going to get ahead of the president on this, but you could expect more announcements, more pardons and clemencies at the end of this term."

During the press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has repeatedly brought up comments from a former attorney general who came to the Bidens' defence.

No US attorney "would have charged this case given the underlying facts", said Eric Holder, who served under the Obama administration, referencing Hunter Biden's federal gun case in which he was convicted.

"Had his name been Joe Smith the resolution would have been - fundamentally and more fairly - a declination. Pardon warranted," Holder wrote in a post on X. It's a line that Jean-Pierre also repeated this morning.

The president made a similar argument in announcing his decision to pardon his son, saying Hunter had been targeted for partisan reasons.

Of the 7,454 people sentenced for illegal gun possession in 2021, only about 5% of them were charged due to drug use, according to US Sentencing Commission data.

In a heated back-and-forth between a reporter and the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the issue of Joe Biden's statement comes under scrutiny.

A reporter asks if Biden no longer believes in the US Justice Department given his statement on why he pardoned his son claims that: "raw politics has infected this process".

Jean-Pierre responds by saying "two things could be true".

"The president does believe in the justice system and in the Department of Justice," she says, "and he also believes that his son was singled out politically".

The White House press secretary is then asked what changed Biden’s mind and she again refers to his statement, saying he wrestled with the decision but once he had made it, he decided to move forward with it. "He wrestled with it. It was not an easy decision to make."

That decision was made at the weekend, Karine Jean-Pierre says, but she declines to comment on if Biden discussed his decision with Hunter while they were together.

Jean-Pierre adds that in the past five years, the president’s political opponents have said specifically that they were “going after” Hunter Biden.

She then reads statements from various legal experts who have defended Joe Biden’s position.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who is on board Air Force One, has just defended the president during a briefing with reporters.

A reporter asks if Joe Biden lied when he previously said that he wouldn't pardon his son Hunter. Jean-Pierre defends the president, encouraging everyone to read his statement in full.

"He came to this decision this weekend," she says, adding that the president says he "wrestled" with the process.

"The president believed enough is enough and took action," she says.

We're currently listening in on a briefing aboard Air Force One with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and US national security council spokesman John Kirby.

The topic so far has been the Middle East, but Jean-Pierre has said she will answer questions about the Hunter Biden pardon at the end of the briefing.

Stick with us.

With the spotlight on Joe Biden's pardon for his son Hunter, let's have a look at what past American presidents have done in terms of granting clemency.

There are two options available to a US president under the country's constitution:

• a pardon which wipes away someone's sentence, handing them back the right to vote, run for elected office, own a gun or serve on a jury
• a commutation shortens or ends a sentence but the conviction remains on a person's criminal record

In the graph below, we can see that former Democratic president Harry Truman issued the most pardons since 1945.

Former US President Barack Obama takes the title as having issued the most commutations since 1945, with most made in the final year of his second term.

Biden has, to date, issued the least number of pardons in recent history. But it's important to note that pardons and commutations often happen in the final weeks and days of a presidency, so there could be a flurry as we get closer to inauguration day on 20 January, when US President-elect Donald Trump officially takes office.

We' have more reactions now, this time from some Democrats:

Democrat representative of Arizona, Greg Stanton, said: "I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong. This wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers."

Governor of Colorado Jared Polis posted on X that "while as a father I certainly understand President @JoeBiden’s natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country".

"This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation," he said, adding: "No one is above the law".

Ohio Democrat Greg Landsman said: "As a father, I get it. But as someone who wants people to believe in public service again, it’s a setback."

The news of US President Joe Biden pardoning his son Hunter Biden has resulted in a steady stream of criticism from Republican lawmakers.

President-elect Donald Trump claimed the decision was an "abuse and miscarriage of justice" in a post on Truth Social.

Other Republican figures and key Trump allies were quick to follow:

House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed trust in the justice system has been "almost irreparably damaged by the Bidens and their use and abuse of it".

Kentucky Congressman James Comer claimed Joe Biden and his family had "lied from start to finish about his family's corrupt influence peddling activities".

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley posted on X that he was “shocked” by the pardon because Biden “said many many times he wouldn’t and I believed him”, adding, "shame on me".

Geogia respresentative Marjorie Taylor-Greene, called the president“a liar and a hypocrite, all the way to the end”.

Wyoming senator John Barrasso said the pardon "proves to the American people that there is a two-tier system of justice".

James FitzGerald
BBC News reporter

As we have been explaining, a presidential pardon wipes convictions for all federal crimes.

While the pardoning power is considered broad and past presidents have used it for various reasons, it is not limitless.

For example, Donald Trump will be unable to pardon himself in his "hush money" case when he becomes president again in January because it is a state-level case.

However, question marks remain over the sentencing in this anyway, with Trump's lawyers pressing for the case to be thrown out.

For more on presidential pardons, we have this explainer on what Hunter Biden did and what it means to be pardoned.

Hunter Biden's pardon means the convictions related to two separate cases - gun possession and tax evasion - are wiped clean from his record.

Let's take a look at his federal tax evasion case - our previous post covers Hunter's federal gun trial.

In September of this year, Biden was due to face a federal trial over allegations he had intentionally avoided paying $1.4m (£1m) in income tax from 2016-19.

After an initial plea of not guilty, at the last minute, he changed his plea, accepting all nine charges - three were felony tax offences and the remaining six were misdemeanour offences.

The indictment detailed how Biden earned $7m in income from his foreign business dealings between 2016-19, spending about $5m during that period on "everything but his taxes".

Those purchases included drugs, escorts, lavish hotels, luxury cars and clothing, which Biden falsely labelled as business expenses.

He faced a maximum penalty of 17 in federal prison and was due to be sentenced later this month.