WASHINGTON — The answer from the White House is a resounding no: President Joe Biden will not pardon his son Hunter.
But the question does not disappear and it seems far from being resolved. Wouldn’t a loving father do what he could to spare his only surviving son a possible prison sentence that could send him back into a life-threatening spiral of addiction?
Joe Biden doesn’t need to decide yet. The most opportune time to decide whether to use broad presidential pardon powers to expunge federal criminal charges against Hunter Biden may come after the November 2024 election. Win or lose, Biden will never be on the ballot again. ballot, and if he decided to pardon Hunter, he wouldn’t have to worry about a negative reaction from voters.
The bond between father and son runs deep enough that some Democratic lawmakers and fundraisers believe a pardon could be inevitable, despite denials from the White House.
Biden called his 53-year-old son “heart.” In his memoir “Beautiful Things,” Hunter Biden wrote that “the love between me, my father and Beau” — his older brother, who died of brain cancer in 2015 — is “the deepest love I ‘have never known’.
Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., proposed a constitutional amendment earlier this year, it would prohibit presidents from pardoning themselves and their family members, among others. It went nowhere, Cohen said, leaving the president’s pardon power unchecked for the foreseeable future.
“I wouldn’t recommend it politically,” Cohen said in an interview, in response to a question about whether Biden might pardon his son. “It’s in his power, and he loves his son, so what are you going to do?” I suspect he might.
Until recently, a possible pardon for Hunter Biden seemed a moot point. A lengthy federal investigation into his business dealings resulted in a proposed plea deal in which he began the process to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failure to pay taxes. He would have avoided any prison time under the deal. But the deal collapsed at a court hearing in July.
Hunter Biden instead pleaded not guilty and earlier this month special counsel David Weiss issued an indictment alleging that Hunter Biden avoided paying taxes and instead used the money to fuel an “extravagant lifestyle.” Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said during a recent appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that prosecutors’ move from a plea deal to a 56-page indictment was the result of “Republican political pressure.”
If convicted, Hunter Biden faces a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison. As legal risks mount, reporters ask the White House if the president would pardon him.
“I was very clear; the president is not going to pardon his son,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing this week. (The White House did not respond when asked whether Joe Biden himself had publicly stated that he would not pardon Hunter Biden).
President Biden would not need to justify a pardon. A vestige of England’s monarchical power, pardons can be granted for any reason and take place at any time while a president is in office. But Joe Biden believes in his son’s innocence. Talk to Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC in May, Joe Biden said “my son did nothing wrong.” He told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in a podcast this month that Hunter Biden was a “better man than me.”
Other presidents have pardoned family members, friends and political allies before leaving the country. On his last day in office in 2001, Bill Clinton pardoned his brother Roger for a possession of cocaine case in the 1980s.
What can’t be ignored as Hunter Biden’s case unfolds is the stress and even guilt some presidents feel when their family members face legal jeopardy. They may think that if they had not run for office, their families would never have faced the scrutiny that got them into trouble.
Former President George HW Bush is a good example. He was so upset by his son Neil Bush’s involvement in a savings and loan scandal that he considered not running for office in 1992.
In her biography of the former president’s wife, Barbara Bush, author Susan Page cited excerpts from her diary in which the then-first lady wrote: “I know he (George H. W. Bush ) has children in mind. He is consumed by worry about Neil and a feeling of guilt. He knows Neil would never have gotten into such trouble if he hadn’t been the president’s son.”
Three decades later, a similar family dynamic may be at work.
In a recent podcast, Hunter Biden suggested Republicans were trying to force him into a relapse that would kill him, “knowing it would be a bigger pain than my father could bear.” » (In addition to the death of Beau Biden, the president lost his first wife and daughter in a car accident in Delaware in 1972).
“The latest indictment must have stung him (Joe Biden),” said one Democratic fundraiser, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak freely about the Biden family. “It’s serious and for me, how can you not start thinking about a grace? He lost two children.
As tempting as a pardon may be for a family that has already suffered a serious loss, Democratic lawmakers said it’s an action Joe Biden should avoid.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Mass., who sharply criticized then-President Donald Trump for “suspending pardons” while in office, told NBC News that the elder Biden “should not be Donald Trump.”
“Pardons should not be used for personal gain,” she said. “They should only be used in the interest of the American public.”
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., was even more specific on the issue of forgiving family members.
“I believe the Constitution’s power of pardon is provided for in extraordinary circumstances, assuming unstated extenuating circumstances,” Connolly said. “It was not intended to help family members. So no, I don’t think it should be used for that purpose. »
Sen. Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, said he also wanted Biden to avoid pardoning his son, adding that he believed the president was assuming the justice system would take its course.
Hunter Biden’s mother is a wild card in any discussion. First lady Jill Biden has the president’s ear and is extraordinarily devoted to her son.
“From the moment I began working with Dr. B., she was instinctively protective of Hunter in the natural way any mother would be of her son, but her loyalty and love for Hunter was also without loophole,” said Michael LaRosa, Jill Biden’s former press secretary.
His office did not immediately respond to a question about his position on the issue of a pardon. But it’s not hard to infer how she would feel if Hunter Biden were convicted and sent to prison.
“Everyone and their brother investigated Hunter,” she told NBC News last year. in an interview. “They keep going, and going, and going. I know Hunter is innocent.
