WASHINGTON: The White House said on Monday (Dec 2) that President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter in part because of concern his political opponents would continue to persecute the younger Biden in the future, as a growing chorus of Democrats and Republicans criticised his decision.
Biden, a Democrat whose term ends on Jan 20 when Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office, signed an unconditional pardon for Hunter Biden on Sunday and said he believed his son had been selectively prosecuted and targeted unfairly by the president’s political opponents.
Biden said in the past that he would not pardon his son, including to ABC News in June when he was asked if he would rule out a pardon, and replied “yes.”
His surprise move was panned by his Republican political opposition, but also by Democrats who say it threatens to undermine public trust in the rule of law, a concept Biden and his party had used to criticise Trump.
Hunter was prosecuted for tax offences and gun charges, after being targeted for years by Republicans in Congress who accused him of making business deals using his father’s name but failed to establish any clear connections.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday defended the president’s action and said Biden believed Hunter faced further grief from his adversaries without naming them, and suggested it could continue even after the president left office. Jean-Pierre was among the White House officials who had repeatedly said in the past Biden would not pardon his son.
“One of the reasons the president did the pardon is because (it) didn’t seem like his political opponents would let go of it. It didn’t seem like they would move on,” she told reporters on Air Force One during a trip to Angola. “They would continue to go after his son. That’s what he believed.”
