U.S. President Joe Biden has granted a presidential pardon to his son Hunter, who was convicted of tax and gun charges.
This pardon came despite Mr Biden saying he would not use his executive power to pardon his son or commute his sentence.
In an interview with ABC News, Mr Biden ruled out a pardon or clemency for his son. A statement by the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in November also affirmed Mr Biden’s position.
However, Mr Biden, in a statement on Sunday night, said his son had been “singled out” and called his cases ”a miscarriage of justice.”
“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 — and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further,” said the U.S. president. “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
Mr Biden further accused his political opponents of frustrating the plea deal, which was supposed to bring his son’s cases to an end.
“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,” Mr Biden explained. “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.”
Mr Hunter was scheduled to be sentenced on December 12 for his conviction on federal gun charges.
He also was scheduled for incarceration on December 16 in a separate criminal case bordering on tax evasion charges, to which he pleaded guilty in September.
Mr Biden’s tenure ends in a few weeks as President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated on January 20, 2025.
Although several U.S. presidents have granted pardons to friends, donors, and political allies, no one has pardoned his son.
