Hunter Biden faced the prospect of years in federal prison over a raft of charges relating to gun possession and tax fraud.

The president's son was convicted in June of the illegal possession of a firearm, as well as lying about his drug use when buying it.

Prosecutors said he lied on the firearm application form by claiming he was not using drugs. Hunter's attorneys argued he did not consider himself an addict and had been clean at that time.

Hunter had the gun - a .38-caliber Colt Cobra Special - for about 11 days, and never fired it in that time, according to his lawyers.

That conviction carried a maximum sentence of 25 years, although Hunter was expected to face a shorter sentence of up to 16 months.

Then, in September, the president's son pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges for falsifying records and failing to file returns. He faced up to 17 years in prison, with a sentencing hearing scheduled for 16 December.

Hunter is the first child of a sitting US leader to be convicted of a federal crime.

Image source, Reuters

President Joe Biden ignored questions shouted at him by the press on why he changed his mind about pardoning his son Hunter as he boarded Air Force One on Sunday night.

The president is departing on what is likely to be his last overseas trip while in office, flying to Angola for a long-promised visit to Africa.

Biden faces a packed agenda after touching down, on a trip that the White House has said will focus on strengthening regional security, growing economic opportunities, and improving technological and scientific relations.

The president had earlier on Saturday spent his final Thanksgiving holiday as president in the New England town of Nantucket, as is his family tradition.

Image source, Reuters

Hunter Biden is the only surviving son of President Joe Biden, and is the first child of a sitting US president to face a criminal trial.

The 54-year-old has faced personal struggles in recent years, from alcohol and drug abuse to relationship strife.

Biden has admitted that he began drinking as a teenager and acknowledged abusing cocaine as a college student. Since then, he’s been in and out of rehab.

A graduate of Georgetown University and Yale Law School, Hunter joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, a Catholic group serving marginalised communities. There, he met fellow lawyer Kathleen Buhle, and the two married in 1993. They have three children together.

Biden has admitted that infidelity was the final straw in their marriage, which led to a divorce in 2017. A DNA test later showed Biden was the biological father of a child born to an exotic dancer in Arkansas.

Biden also has a fifth child, four-year-old Beau, with his current wife, Melissa Cohen Biden. Read more here.

Former US federal prosecutor, Sarah Krissoff, says she isn't surprised that Biden has pardoned his son, despite his assurances that he wouldn't.

"President Biden had said over and over again he wasn't going to do this, but I had surmised a few months ago that this was likely going to happen," she tells the BBC.

"He put his family first. I'm not surprised by that despite the statements he made publicly that he wasn't going to do this," she says.

Krissoff added there was "a lot of truth" to Biden's claim that Hunter would not have been prosecuted if he wasn't his son, saying: "These types of crimes really aren't usually charged. It's very unusual to charge someone for that gun offence. And similarly with the tax crimes... [these] types of cases are usually resolved with some sort of civil settlement with the IRS."

Alex Lederman
BBC News, Washington

The Bidens are a famously tight-knit family. During Hunter’s trial, we saw First Lady Jill Biden in the courtroom, as well as his sister Ashley and other relatives. All were emotional, as intimate details from the darkest days of Hunter’s addiction were rehashed.

President Biden did not himself make an appearance at the courthouse, but he gave his son a long hug on the tarmac when he landed in Delaware later that day.

The trial is reported to have taken a serious toll on President Biden, who blamed himself for bringing scrutiny onto his son and feared he might relapse.

The Bidens have frequently argued that this was an unfair political prosecution, but the president said many times that he wouldn’t pardon his son.

With his days in office now limited, and an opponent coming to power who has promised to appoint a special counsel to investigate the “Biden crime family,” President Biden has proven that his word in this case was based on a different future - one in which Donald Trump was not elected.

To catch a livestream of the BBC News channel, click the play button on the top of this page.

The eldest son of president-elect Donald Trump said Biden's pardon was an expected move.

"Everyone knew he was going to do it. He was just going to do it when it was if no consequence to democrat electability," Donald Trump Jr said in a post on X that was later reposted by Elon Musk.

Image source, EPA

In issuing the "full and unconditional pardon" for his son, Joe Biden said Hunter was "selectively and unfairly prosecuted".

"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.

"There has been an effort to break Hunter - who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me - and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough," Joe Biden said, in a statement from the White House, external.

The pardon covers any potential federal crimes Hunter Biden may have committed from January 2014 through December 2024. This period covers Hunter Biden's tenure as a board member of Burisama, a Ukrainian company that has been accused of bribery.

Image source, Getty Images

Joe Biden had said in June that he would neither pardon his son nor commute his sentence.

"I'm extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction... he's one of the brightest, most decent men I know.

"I said I'd abide by the jury decision, and I will do that. And I will not pardon him," Biden told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy.

When asked if he planned to commute Hunter Biden's sentence, the president mouthed "no".

Image source, Reuters

We're seeing more reaction from Republican representatives now after Donald Trump labelled the pardoning as an "abuse and miscarriage of justice".

• Georgie representative Marjorie Taylor-Green claims the pardon is "Joe Biden’s admission that Hunter is a criminal", calling the president "a liar and a hypocrite, all the way to the end"
• James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, accused Joe Biden of lying about his family's "corrupt influence peddling activities" and accuses the Bidens of "doing everything they can to avoid accountability"
• Wyoming senator John Barrasso said the pardon was wrong and that it "proves to the American people that there is a two-tier system of justice"

It is not unheard of for US presidents to issue presidential pardons to benefit their family and political allies.

Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother for old cocaine charges and Donald Trump pardoned the father of his son-in-law for tax evasion, though in both cases those men had already served their prison terms.

The use of pardons for political allies however is a much lengthier list.

For example, in 1974 President Gerald Ford controversially and pre-emptively pardoned his predecessor Richard Nixon - who was also a Republican - for any crimes he may have committed in the Watergate scandal.

Both Clinton and George W. Bush made headlines for pardoning men whose family members had generously donated to their campaigns or parties - though, Bush reversed the pardon for Isaac Toussie just a day later amid the fallout.

And in more recent times, Donald Trump pardoned former advisers Stephen Bannon - for fraud - and Roger Stone - over his involvement in election interference during the 2016 campaign.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

US president-elect Donald Trump has now spoken out, making comparisons to rioters who stormed the US Capitol on Jan 6 2021.

"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!" the president-elect posted on Truth Social.

Trump has repeatedly referred to the prisoners as "hostages", despite the fact that a judge had previously rejected this description.

President Biden's decision to pardon his son has divided Democratic figures.

While some appear to agree with the president's claim that the prosecution of Hunter Biden was politically motivated and unfair, others said giving special treatment to relatives of sitting presidents sets a troubling precedent.

"While as a father I certainly understand [Biden'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," Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, wrote on X.

Eric Holder, who served as US attorney general from 2009 to 2015, meanwhile suggested that "no [US attorney general] would have charged this case given the underlying facts".

"Had his name been Joe Smith the resolution would have been - fundamentally and more fairly - a declination," Holder wrote on X. "Pardon warranted."

In a statement, Trump's spokesman and incoming White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said the justice system is broken - though he did not specifically refer to Biden's case.

"The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled Department of Justice and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponising the justice system," he said.

"That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people."

Alex Lederman
BBC News, Washington

I was in the courthouse when Hunter Biden was found guilty on three felony counts for illegal possession of a firearm.

All the reporters lined by the door of the courthouse overflow room, waiting for the verdict to be read out.

“Guilty,” we heard and sprinted down the staircase, out the door to alert our teams waiting outside.

No phones were allowed inside the courthouse.

The verdict came just over a week after former President and now President-elect Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records for hush money payments to an adult film actress.

I was at that New York courthouse too, and the decision at the time felt momentous.

What we learned in the weeks and months that followed was that neither verdict would impact the election nearly as much as it felt at the time.

Republican voters stood firmly behind Donald Trump, and Joe Biden’s candidacy wouldn’t even last until the Democratic National Convention.

With Trump’s New York sentencing now paused, his federal indictments dropped, and Hunter Biden pardoned, that moment has proved even more fleeting.

In a statement on Sunday, Hunter Biden said he has "admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction", adding that these mistakes had been "exploited to publicly humiliate and shame" him and his family.

“I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering," Biden added.

Image source, Getty Images

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Joe Biden’s explanation for pardoning his son is that Hunter Biden has been unfairly targeted by the president’s own political enemies in an attempt to politically damage him.

That might sound familiar to anyone who has listened to Donald Trump rail against America’s system of justice in recent years.

Trump, as he exited the White House in 2021, issued a series of pardons for his close associates and allies who had been swept up in the multiple criminal investigations that encircled him throughout his presidential term. Although he was criticised for his actions at the time, there were little if any political consequences.

Biden may be criticised as well – for breaking his promise and for using his presidential power to protect his son. With his political career drawing to a close, however, there is likely to be little price the outgoing president will pay for his actions.

The national attention will quickly shift back to the incoming Trump presidency.

The rules governing presidential pardoning – or at the very least the processes and established guardrails that had guided its use – appear to have been fundamentally and permanently altered.

And at this point there may be scarce grounds for anyone to complain, no matter on which side of the political aisle they stand.

Yvette Tan
Live editor

Welcome to our live coverage on US President Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son Hunter, who was due to be sentenced this month on gun and tax crimes.

Reactions to the news are now streaming in and are mixed - with some criticising Biden for protecting his son and others noting that president-elect Donald Trump had also issued similar pardons.

We'll bring you the latest updates as we get them - stay with us.