Joe Biden is not the first president to pardon relatives

“I believe in the justice system, but…” is how Joe Biden begins the justification for his most controversial pardon. His own son’s. “As I have wrestled with this question, I have come to believe that pure politics has infected this process and led to a miscarriage of justice,” said the US President, justifying the “full and unconditional” pardon.

Hunter Biden was charged with two counts. When asked by the press, the US President always replied that he would not pardon his son. Now, after spending Thanksgiving together on the island of Nantucket, he seems to have changed his mind.

Hunter Biden is 54 years old, a businessman and lobbyist. He has had problems with drugs and alcohol in the past. His addiction led to the later trials.

Biden was convicted of illegal gun possession in June after allegedly lying about his drug history during a 2018 gun purchase. He denied the allegations, but was still found guilty. In this case he faces up to 25 years in prison.

In September he pleaded guilty to tax evasion in another case. The accusation is that he spent millions on an expensive lifestyle instead of paying his taxes. Hunter Biden only paid his taxes retrospectively. There is a risk of up to 17 years in prison.

The sentence for both trials should be announced in December. However, experts assumed that the penalties would be significantly lower.

A U.S. president has the right, according to the Constitution, “to grant remissions and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” Simply put: A pardon legally waives the existing sentence and ends any further punishment. In the case of Hunter Biden, the wording of the order includes all crimes that the president’s son “has committed or may have committed” between 2014 and 2024.

The power of the US President is extensive, but not limitless. A distinction is made between a full pardon – as was the case with Hunter Biden – and the commutation of a sentence. Alleged crimes can only be expunged at the national level; convictions at the state level cannot be overturned. Donald Trump, who was indicted by the state of New York in his hush money case, could also reach this limit.

Many US presidents have issued pardons, particularly in their final days in office. Family members have also already been pardoned. Trump, for example, pardoned his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law, Charles Kushner. He was sentenced to two years in prison in 2005 for tax evasion, violations of campaign finance laws and influencing witnesses. Democrat Bill Clinton also pardoned his half-brother Roger, who was convicted of smuggling and possessing cocaine. However, unlike Hunter Biden, Kushner and Clinton had already served their sentences.

Particularly controversial was US President Gerald Ford’s decision in 1974 to pardon his predecessor Richard Nixon, who feared prosecution because of the Watergate scandal.

This is how many pardons and sentence commutations other US presidents issued, according to the Pew Research Center:

After Biden’s decision, Trump spoke of an “abuse and failure of the judiciary.” He drew parallels to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, after which some Trump supporters were sentenced to prison. He calls these “hostages” and wrote on his own platform Truth Social: “Does the pardon granted by Joe Hunter include the January 6th hostages who were imprisoned for years?” In more than 650 cases, the highest punishment given to a Capitol stormer was 41 months in prison because the man had attacked a police officer. Trump is expected to pardon most of his convicted supporters after he takes office in January.

Other Republicans also criticized Biden’s decision and even accused him of “corruption.” Tech billionaire and Trump advisor Elon Musk simply commented: “Fate loves irony… but it hates hypocrisy.”

Sources: , “”, , , with information from the DPA news agency