US President Joe Biden has issued an official pardon for his son Hunter, who was set to face sentencing this month on federal felony gun and tax convictions
Biden had previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence. But on Sunday evening, he said although he believed in the justice system, “politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice”
The youngest son of the US president in June was found guilty of two charges related to lying about his drug use on a federal form, and one for possessing a gun while addicted to or using drugs.
And in September he pleaded guilty to nine charges in his federal tax evasion case after previously denying allegations he had intentionally avoided paying $1.4m (£1m) in income tax from 2016-19.
He was due to be sentenced on 16 December.
The president is being accused of hypocrisy by his political opponents but he argued “no reasonable person” who looked at the facts could reach any other conclusion than that Hunter Biden was singled out only because he was his son.
He said anyone else who committed these relatively minor offences would not have been prosecuted.
Hunter Biden responded by saying his mistakes had been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame him and his family and he pledged to never take the clemency he’d been given for granted.
Donald Trump posted on social media that he thinks a pardon is an “abuse and miscarriage of justice”.
