Joe Biden had repeatedly stated that he did not want to pardon his own son Hunter. With his about-face, he is doing American democracy a disservice.
The matter was actually clear: On November 8th – three days after Donald Trump’s election victory – White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre emphasized: The outgoing US President Joe Biden will, despite the defeat of his Democrats not pardon his son Hunter Biden. Biden himself had said this again and again.
But less than a month later it turns out that all these assurances were worthless. Surprisingly, the White House has now announced that Biden is now granting his son a comprehensive legal acquittal. Read more about this here.
With his about-face, Joe Biden not only spared his son from legal consequences for illegal gun possession and tax violations. Hunter Biden’s pardon has the potential to do lasting damage to US democracy. Because Biden’s decision will mercilessly exploit his successor Donald Trump for his own political agenda.
In his justification, Biden displays an idiosyncratic view of American justice: he believes in the US justice system, but at the same time the investigations against his son have been politically “infected”. They are words that are no longer far removed from Donald Trump’s choice of words. He has been a victim of a “witch hunt” for years because he has been investigated in numerous cases.
Trump had repeatedly tried to equate his own investigations with those of Hunter Biden. Legally, the situations are hardly comparable: Trump was investigated for, among other things, serious crimes such as influencing the presidential election, conspiracy or concealing hush money payments. In the latter case he has already been found guilty on all charges.
It is all the more unusual that Joe Biden has now issued his son a pardon that goes far beyond the two trials against him: for the period between 2014 and 2024, his son can no longer be legally prosecuted at the federal level.
It’s a real treat for the Republicans: they’ve been attacking the current US president because of his son for years. Sometimes they accused Hunter Biden of overcoming drug addiction, sometimes he was accused of involvement in US politics because of his own business in Ukraine and China. All investigations have remained inconclusive to date. However, many Republicans will now continue to ask themselves: Weren’t there perhaps some things over the past ten years that the public didn’t know about?
Donald Trump is likely to strengthen the late pardon in his political line. There are already fears that the 78-year-old will restructure the US justice system to his will and use it against political opponents. In the future, Trump will be able to claim that even his predecessor no longer believed in the independence of the judiciary. Biden and later Kamala Harris repeatedly emphasized in the lost election campaign that they wanted to preserve US democracy and protect it from Trump.
All of these assurances have been shattered by Hunter Biden’s pardon. Trump has already made it clear how he might react to the legal amnesty: Shortly after the announcement, Trump again raised the question of why the “hostages” from January 6th should not also be pardoned. This meant the many convicted rioters who stormed the Capitol in 2021. In a few weeks, Trump will be able to decide for himself.
