US: Biden pardons son convicted of gun and tax offences

President Joe Biden

In two separate trials, the younger Mr Biden admitted failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019, and lying about his history of drug use in order to obtain a firearm.

He had not yet been sentenced, and faced maximum sentences of 25 years’ imprisonment for the gun offences and 17 years’ imprisonment for the tax offences — though much shorter sentences were widely expected.

President Biden had previously said he would not use his presidential powers to pardon his son.

However, he said in a statement yesterday that he felt compelled to act because his son was “selectively and unfairly prosecuted” for political reasons.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

He added: “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.”