US President Biden pardons son Hunter in criminal cases, breaking previous vows on family benefit

Washington News: President Joe Biden pardons son Hunter on gun and tax charges when he’d stated he wouldn’t, arguing that his cases were politically motivated and pursued to bring the president into disrepute.

President Barack Obama issued a statement Sunday evening claiming his son was "singled out" because he was the president’s son.

"I support the system of justice, but as I have grappled with this, I also believe that raw politics has permeated this process and we had a miscarriage of justice," Biden said.

In June, Biden was convicted in Delaware federal court of three felonies after he purchased a gun in 2018 after prosecutors said he had falsely claimed on a federal application that he wasn’t taking drugs illegally or addicted to drugs. His sentence was slated to be delivered Nov. 13 but the judge pushed back the hearing until Dec. 4 because Hunter Biden’s attorneys said they needed more time to get prepared.

He could receive 25 years on the weapons charges, but he was likely to be given a lower sentence or nothing at all as a first-time offender who hadn’t used the gun in a violent offence.

The president pardoning his son represents a stark break from months of promises from the White House and Biden himself that he would not use the legitimacy of his office for his family. After his son’s gun trial was concluded, the president pledged to "take the jury’s decision into consideration. I will do that and I will not forgive him."

"His hunter Biden case was brought against me after a number of my congressional colleagues provoked them to attack me and vote against me," Biden said in a statement. ‘No reasonable person, considering the facts of hunter Biden news, can accept that Hunter was singled out because he is my son — and that’s wrong.

The Biden administration retained former President Donald Trump’s hire David Weiss and appointed him special counsel to give him more control over the case amid protests by Republicans in Congress about a politicized system of justice.