By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – Saying “Enough is enough,” outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden on Sunday, removing criminal convictions on tax and gun charges despite pledging this year he wouldn’t grant such a reprieve.
Biden’s pardon, a decision he made over the Thanksgiving weekend, came just weeks before his son appeared for sentencing hearings in Delaware and California, where he faced the potential of lengthy prison sentences.
“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision,” Biden added.
The president had spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Nantucket, Massachusetts, with Hunter and his family. He was set to depart later Sunday on what may be his last foreign trip as president before leaving office on Jan. 20, 2025.
It caps a long-running legal saga for the younger Biden, who publicly disclosed he was under federal investigation in December 2020 — a month after his father’s 2020 victory — and casts a pall over the elder Biden’s legacy.
Biden, who repeatedly pledged to Americans that he would restore norms and respect for the rule of law after Trump’s first term in office, ultimately used his position to help his son, breaking his public pledge to Americans that he would do no such thing.
In June, Biden categorically ruled out a pardon or commutation for his son, telling reporters as his son faced trial in the Delaware gun case, “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that, and I will not pardon him.”
TRUMP VICTORY
As recently as November 8, days after Donald J. Trump’s election victory, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ruled out a pardon or clemency for the younger Biden, saying, “We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no.”
The elder Biden has publicly stood by his only living son as Hunter descended into serious drug addiction and threw his family life into turmoil before pulling himself out in recent years.
Stories from independent media, including Worthy News, reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop showing much evidence related to the case, were removed from social media platforms, apparently amid pressure from the Biden administration.
Joe Biden said his political rivals have long used his son’s mistakes as a political tool against him. In one hearing, lawmakers displayed half-naked photos of the drug-addicted president’s son in a seedy hotel.
And House Republicans sought to use the younger Biden’s years of questionable overseas business ventures in a since-abandoned attempt to impeach his father. He has long denied involvement in his son’s dealings or benefiting from them despite reports to the contrary.
In a statement released Sunday evening, Biden said, “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.”
He added: “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. 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.”
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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