Outgoing US President Joe Biden pardons son Hunter

President Joe Biden, and his son Hunter Biden arrive at Fort McNair, in Washington, June 25, 2023.[VOA]

U.S. President Joe Biden announced Sunday he pardoned his son Hunter, who was facing sentencing this month in two federal cases.

Biden had previously pledged not to take such action, but in a statement Sunday he said the move was in response to what he called selective and unfair prosecution.

“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said.

Hunter Biden was convicted of three felonies in June for a 2018 gun purchase. Prosecutors said he falsely claimed on a federal form to not be illegally using or addicted to drugs.

He also pled guilty in a case where he was accused of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.

The president’s action Sunday pardoned Hunter Biden in both cases, as well as any offense he “has committed or may have committed or taken part” between January 1, 2014 to January 1, 2024.

"I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport," Hunter Biden said in a statement.

President Biden said in his statement that he hopes “Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision.”

“For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: 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,” Biden said.

President-elect Donald Trump criticized the move, calling it “such an abuse and miscarriage of justice.”

Trump, in the late stages of his first term in office, pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Other Trump pardons included his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, former chief strategist Steve Bannon and campaign aide George Papadopoulos.