BREAKING: Joe Biden pardons son Hunter

Despite the repeated assurances that Biden would not pardon his son, it has been reported that he's been mulling it over since June. Even so, the president had decided at the time not to make these considerations public, per NBC. At each press briefing in which press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the likelihood of a Biden pardon for Hunter, she said that it would not happen. Even in November, Jean-Pierre said "We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands which is 'no.'" First Lady Jill Biden has also said that her husband would not issue a pardon to Hunter, who is her step-son.

Biden addressed his change of heart in the statement, saying "From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department's decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted." The statement then discusses the charges, saying that there were not "aggravating factors" to the gun purchase and noting that "people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form." As for the tax charges, Biden said "those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions."

"It is clear that Hunter was treated differently," Biden said.

"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. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases," the statement continued.

"No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."

In concluding his statement, Biden said "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. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."

The pardon reads: "A Full and Unconditional Pardon

"For those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions) by Special Counsel David C. Weiss in Docket No. 1:23-cr-00061-MN in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware and Docket No. 2:23-CR-00599-MCS-1 in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

"IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF I have hereunto signed my name and caused the Pardon to be recorded with the Department of Justice."

The younger Biden, the president's only surviving son, had a sentencing date fast approaching. He had been scheduled to be sentenced on December 12 following a conviction on gun charges. He was charged with lying on his federal gun buy background check, saying that he was not a user of illegal drugs when he was, which was attested to by his personal records. His memoir also shows, in his own words, that he was using drugs at the time of the gun purchase. His father is a huge proponent of mandatory background checks for gun purchases.

Hunter was also expected at a sentencing hearing on December 16 for tax crimes, to which he pleaded guilty in September. A pardon from the Oval Office would take care of both crimes.

Hunter Biden has been the focus of many scandals during his father's administration and in the race leading up to that first 2020 contest. Contents from his laptop, which became known as the "laptop from hell," was made public in October 2020 and it revealed close ties between Biden and his son's business dealings, which he had long said he was not part of. The New York Post's publication of a story detailing those allegations, with the backup from the laptop, essentially broke the internet. Twitter and Facebook both suppressed the story and news outlets that were advocating for a Biden victory ran articles about how they would not cover the laptop rather than cover it.

The Biden campaign's Anthony Blinken, who later became Biden's Secretary of State, elicited former intelligence officials to write a letter stating that the laptop bore the hallmarks of Russian disinformation. This falsehood was then repeated by the Biden campaign and their friends in corporate media. After the election, in some cases over a year later, those outlets were forced to concede that the story was real and that the laptop, which Hunter had left behind in a Delaware repair shop, was authentic. It was later revealed that the FBI was aware of the existence of the laptop in 2019 but sat on it. It made its way to the Post because the repair shop owner had made a copy and handed it off to Rudy Giuliani.

President Biden is serving his last term in the White House, having withdrawn from the presidential race in disgrace after a poor debate performance against Donald Trump in June. Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on the same day he pulled out of the race. This final White House term likely also spells an end to the 82-year-old's long life in public service. He began his first term as a Senator from Delaware in the 1970s.