Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter on Sunday in cases of illegal gun acquisition and tax violations. Here is his statement:
Today I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere in the Justice Department's decision-making, and I have kept my word, even as I have watched my son be selectively and unfairly prosecuted. Without aggravating factors such as use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a gun as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges simply because of how they filled out a gun form. Those who are late paying their taxes due to serious addictions but then pay them back with interest and penalties usually get a non-punitive resolution. Clearly, Hunter was treated differently.
The charges in his cases arose only after several of my political opponents in Congress incited them to attack me and oppose my election. The carefully negotiated plea agreement agreed to by the Justice Department then unraveled in the courtroom - with many of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for putting political pressure on the process. Had the plea agreement been in place, it would have been a fair and reasonable resolution of the Hunter cases.
No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's case can come to any other conclusion than that Hunter was singled out simply because he is my son - and that is wrong. There was an effort to break Hunter - who has been sober for five and a half years, despite the relentless attacks and selective prosecution. In an effort to break Hunter, they tried to break me - and there is no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.
Throughout my career, I have followed a simple principle: simply tell the American people the truth. They'll be fair. Here's the truth: I believe in the judicial system, but as I've struggled with it, I also believe that raw politics has infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice - and once I made this decision over the weekend, there was no point in delaying it any further. I hope the American people will understand why my father and the President came to this decision.
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