A father pardons his son. Intimacy, justice and politics merge. The father, Joe Biden, wanted to be an exemplary president, respecting the rule of law. On Sunday, December 1, confirming the twilight atmosphere of his end of time in office, the Democrat announced that he was granting a “full and unconditional” pardon to Hunter Biden, protecting him from all current and future legal proceedings.
This decision, made public in a press release just before Joe Biden flew to Angola on Air Force One, contradicts the president’s own commitment not to result to recourse for the benefit of his son, facing potential prison time in two cases.
The 54-year-old Hunter Biden was scheduled to receive his sentence on December 12, following his conviction in June by a federal jury in Delaware for buying and possessing a firearm, in 2018, while under the influence of drugs and having lied about it on the acquisition form. On December 16, Hunter Biden was also due to be sentenced after pleading guilty in September to tax fraud, in California. Potentially, these convictions could earn him several years in prison. The judges are now expected to dismiss both cases.
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“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” Joe Biden explained in a statement on Sunday evening. Both cases were investigated by a special prosecutor, David Weiss, whose status guaranteed his autonomy. As the proceedings progressed, the White House sought to give constant assurances of separation between the president and the judiciary, as has been the practice in sensitive cases since the Watergate scandal, which forced Richard Nixon to resign.
‘Republican persecution’
On the sidelines of the G7 summit in June, Joe Biden was asked about his son’s conviction in Delaware. “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”
Sunday’s decision was a sharp turn. And now Joe Biden is banking on the public’s empathy. “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision.” For years, Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, have experienced Hunter’s addictions and psychological fragility as a personal trauma, especially since the death of Beau Biden, the president’s eldest and beloved son, from brain cancer in 2015.
In his highly personal statement, the president denounced a Republican attack on his son, “who has been five and a half years sober” after a long addiction to alcohol and drugs. A guilty plea agreement accepted by Hunter Biden was called into question in July, but not under pressure from elected representatives in Congress, as Joe Biden suggested: It was the decision of a judge, highly skeptical of the unusual terms of this two-part agreement.
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