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United States President Joe Biden on Sunday granted a “full and unconditional pardon” to his son Hunter Biden, backing away from earlier statements that he would refrain from influencing legal proceedings against him.
“Today, I signed a waiver for my son Hunter. The day I took office, I said I would not interfere in the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I’ve kept my word. “I have seen my son being selective and unfair,” the 82-year-old US president said in a statement shortly before he left for Africa.
“No reasonable person looking at the facts of Hunter’s cases could come to any conclusion other than that Hunter was fired simply because he is my son,” he said.
The development comes after recovering drug addict Hunter, who pleaded guilty to tax violations and was sentenced this month on firearms charges.
Previously, the White House had maintained that the president would not interfere in his son’s legal affairs, which has made Hunter the center of Republican criticism, particularly from President-elect Donald Trump.
According to Biden, the pardon grant covers any of Hunter’s crimes between Jan. 1, 2014 and Dec. 1, 2024.
The president’s 54-year-old son was convicted this month of perjury and gun charges. In September, he pleaded guilty to federal charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes while spending lavishly on drugs, sex workers and luxury items. He was scheduled to be sentenced on December 16.
“I have admitted and taken responsibility for the mistakes I made in the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that publicly cost me and my family for the political game,” Hunter said in a statement Sunday. Used to humiliate and embarrass.” more than five years.
“In my addiction, I lost many opportunities and opportunities… I will never take for granted the forgiveness I have been given today and the life I have rebuilt thanks to the help of these people. I will dedicate it to those who are still sick and suffering.”
Republicans criticized the president’s move.
“Does Joe’s pardon to Hunter include the J-6 hostages, who have been held for years now? Such a miscarriage of justice!” Trump said in a post on his truth social site, referring to those convicted of storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, when Trump falsely claimed he had won the 2020 election.
“Joe Biden has lied from start to finish about his family’s activities related to corrupt influence,” said Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
The president, whose son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015, said his opponents had tried to break Hunter from selective litigation.
People are almost never prosecuted on serious charges for how they filled out gun forms, he said, adding that other people who delayed paying taxes because of intoxication were charged with interest and penalties. returned with, as his son was generally illegally received. – Criminal solutions to their cases.
“It’s clear that Hunter was treated differently. The allegations in his lawsuit came after several of my political opponents in Congress incited him to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said. Biden said. “In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
In August 2023, Hunter Biden’s lawyers said prosecutors had rejected a plea deal that would have resolved the tax and firearms charges. would have been The president said in a statement Sunday that the plea deal “would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s affairs.”
Biden said he decided to pardon at the end of the week. The president, his wife, Jill Biden, and his family, including Hunter, spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and returned to Washington on Saturday night.
“Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I’ve wrestled with it, I also believe that crude politics have affected the process and caused miscarriages of justice. “Has happened – and once I made that decision this weekend, it didn’t happen. There’s a sense of delay,” Biden said.
“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president come to this decision.”
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