Outgoing President Joe Biden could issue more pardons before the end of his term on Jan. 20, although the White House did not offer further details about the pardons or who they might target.
One day after United States President Joe Biden announced pardon for his son Hunterthe White House said the president is expected to issue more pardons and clemencies before leaving office next month.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday that Biden is “thinking about that process very deeply.”
“I don't have a timeline for you,” Jean-Pierre said. “As you know, this usually happens toward the end. And so the president is going through that process, thinking about that process. I'm not going to get ahead of him. But you can expect more announcements.”
Hunter Biden was facing sentencing this month for gun and tax offenses and could have been jailed for years.
Biden He had promised for months not to pardon his 54-year-old sona lawyer who for years was trapped in cocaine addiction as his life spiraled out of control.
But the president said in a statement Sunday night that Hunter Biden's prosecution was selective and politically motivated, aimed at undermining his re-election campaign before he dropped out of the race in July for another four-year term.
“The charges in their cases arose 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 that he did not illegally use drugs or be addicted to them.
He also pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges in a case in which he was accused of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.
He faced up to 17 years in federal prison in the tax case during a scheduled sentencing hearing in Los Angeles on Dec. 16, although sentencing experts said that as a first-time offender, he most likely would not have served more than 36. months behind bars.
Hunter Biden faced a harsher maximum sentence, 25 years, in the gun case, but was more likely, based on precedent in similar cases, to be given a much shorter sentence, perhaps up to 16 months during a hearing scheduled in Delaware for December 13.
The president's action on Sunday pardoned Hunter Biden in both cases, as well as any crimes he “committed or may have committed or participated in” from January 1, 2014 to January 1, 2024.
Hunter Biden said in a statement: “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.”
The president said in his statement that he hopes “Americans understand why a father and a president would make this decision.”
“Throughout my entire career I have followed a simple principle: simply tell the truth to the American people. They will be fair. The truth is this: I believe in the justice system, but while I have struggled with this, I also believe that crude politics has infected this process and has led to a miscarriage of justice, and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no point in delaying it any further,” Biden said.
President-elect Donald Trump criticized the move, calling it “an abuse and a miscarriage of justice” compared to hundreds of his supporters who have been jailed after being convicted of a series of crimes stemming from the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, while trying to stop Congress from certifying that Biden had defeated Trump's re-election bid in the 2020 campaign.
Trump has said he will consider pardoning many of the rioters when he takes office again on Jan. 20 after winning the November presidential election. Some of the insurrectionists have already served their sentences, but many will remain in prison for years, while other trials have not yet taken place.
Trump, in the closing stages of his first term, pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who was convicted of tax crimes and other charges. On Saturday, Trump said he intends to nominate Kushner Sr. as U.S. ambassador to France.
Trump also pardoned one of his former national security advisers, Michael Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, former chief strategist Steve Bannon and campaign aide George Papadopoulos, among others.
Reactions to President Biden's pardon of his son varied across the American political landscape and not always predictably along party lines, as is often the case when controversial decisions are announced.
Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado, said that while he understood Biden's “natural desire” to want to help his son, he said: “I'm disappointed that he put his family before the country. “This is a bad precedent that could be exploited by subsequent presidents and will unfortunately tarnish their reputation.”
Greg Stanton, a Democratic congressman from Arizona, said: “I respect President Biden, but I think he got this wrong. It was not a politically motivated process. Hunter committed serious crimes and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”
Chuck Grassley, Republican senator from Iowa, posted on What a shame”.
But Eric Holder, a Democrat who was U.S. attorney general under former President Barack Obama, said the president's son was only prosecuted because his last name was Biden. He said no prosecutor “would have brought charges in this case given the underlying facts.”
(With information from The Associated Press and Reuters)