U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday said he has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, even after promising previously that he would not do so.
The president’s 54-year-old son had pleaded guilty to federal tax charges after being found guilty of charges relating to gun possession and drug use in two separate trials.
The sentences were to be announced later in December.
The U.S. president said that, while he had promised he wouldn’t interfere with the Department of Justice’s decisions, “It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
“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,” the older Biden said in a statement released by the White House.
“Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unravelled in the courtroom – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process.
Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s case.
“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 – and that is wrong,” continued the U.S. president.
Biden had said several times that he would not pardon his son. His term in office ends when power is handed over to President-elect Donald Trump on January 20.
During the election campaign, Hunter Biden’s legal problems also weighed on his father politically.
Biden was originally set to be the Democrats’ candidate for the White House but withdrew from the race after a disastrous performance in a televised debate against Trump.
He was eventually replaced by his vice president, Kamala Harris, who was defeated by Trump in the November election.
US President-elect Donald Trump described the decision as a “miscarriage of justice.”
He pointed on his Truth Social platform to people jailed for participating in the January 6, 2021 riots on Capitol Hill in Washington, terming them “hostages.”
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?
Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump posted.
Trump is to be inaugurated in Washington on January 20.
