Joe Biden made the decision to pardon as a father who wants peace of mind for his son. He left the Democrats in trouble, writes the US correspondent Ilmari Reunamäki.
Ilmari Reunamäki, Yhdysvaltain correspondent
President Joe Biden spent Thanksgiving quietly with his family and dropped a news bomb at the end of the holidays.
He was determined to spare his son Hunter Biden of all crimes and any crimes he may have committed during the past ten years.
Biden broke his earlier promises. He had repeated several times that he would not interfere with the activities of the judiciary or its decisions in the case of his son.
However, the U.S. Constitution gives the president broad pardon power, and the pardon is final. Hunter Biden’s legal troubles are over.
The pardon is a relief for the Biden family, a disappointment for the Democrats and a pat on the back for the future president For Donald Trump.
Hunter Biden, 54, has been for years A black sheep of the Bidens family. He is known in the public eye for his messy business dealings and drug problem.
In the summer, Hunter Biden was found guilty of a firearms offense because he had lied to the seller that he was high on drugs when buying a gun. The court was supposed to issue a verdict on the crime in less than two weeks.
Biden was also due to receive a sentence for tax evasion in the near future. He admitted in September that he was guilty of tax fraud and even faced a prison sentence.
President Biden justified his pardon by writing in the bulletin, that his son was treated unfairly because he is the president’s son.
Hunter Biden was found guilty of a crime by a jury of ordinary citizens. However, Biden claims that the charges themselves were brought on political grounds.
Biden wrote in the press release that they tried to break his son so that he himself would be broken. Biden also added that there was no reason to believe that his son’s charges would have stopped there.
The Trump administration would almost certainly have continued to investigate Hunter Biden’s transactions and plan new charges. For years, Hunter has been a name for Republicans that they think should have been focused on doing things instead of Trump’s lawsuits.
Biden knew he could before the White House leaving to offer his son peace or leave him to fight in court for the foreseeable future.
Biden clearly made his decision as a father thinking about his son’s future, and not so much as a retreating president thinking about the wider consequences of the decision.
Democratic leaders are guaranteed to be disappointed by Biden’s decision. They try to talk about their party as defenders of an impartial justice system. However, Biden’s decision signals to the people that one’s own family always comes first.
Biden has reported to have complained to those close to him about how quickly Democrats moved on from him after he was pressured to drop out of the presidential race last summer.
Biden now left the Democrats to respond to the criticism of the pardon in Washington and went on a three-day business trip to Angola himself. The White House does not plan to hold any public press conferences in the next few days.
Criticism from Republicans began immediately. The Republican congressman who led the Hunter Biden investigation in the House of Representatives James Comer commentthat Biden and his family are doing everything they can to avoid responsibility.
John Barrasso, one of the Republican leaders in the Senate wrote on his behalfthat the amnesty proves that the country’s legal system is different for one person than for another.
The future President Trump might be however, satisfied with the amnesty, as it is now easier for him to justify amnesties to his own circle and allies.
Trump quickly commented on Biden’s decision by askingdoes Hunter Biden’s pardon also include amnesty for the “January 6 hostages.”
Trump is referring to those imprisoned for the attack on the Capitol in Epiphany 2021, when Biden’s election victory was confirmed.
Trump wrote that they have been held captive “for years,” which he says is an abuse of the justice system. During his election campaign, Trump repeated several times that he intended to pardon all those convicted of the attack on the Congress building.
Trump was after election day, however suspiciously quiet of this promise. The silence was apt to increase the suspicion that Trump would not necessarily see it as a politically useful move to pardon all those who attacked the congress building. Now it’s much easier.
Trump has a patent response ready for criticism for pardoning his own allies. Biden did it first.