Biden is now the third president to pardon a relative, after Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. Here’s a look at the commonplace — yet often controversial — presidential power.
The topic of presidential pardons is back in the spotlight this week after President Biden announced he signed a “full and unconditional” one for his son.
Hunter Biden was convicted earlier this year of federal gun charges for lying about his addiction to crack cocaine when he purchased a gun, and separately pleaded guilty to tax offenses for failing to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes. Sentences in both cases were scheduled to be handed down later this month.
The president has said publicly that he would not pardon his son — but reversed that promise in an announcement on Sunday in which he called the prosecution unfair and selective.
Biden blamed his opponents in Congress for instigating the charges against Hunter and unraveling his would-be plea deal through political pressure, though the special counsel leading the firearm probe has denied facing political interference.
In his statement, Biden said, “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.”
“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice”, Biden added. “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
Biden’s decision was met with criticism from both sides of the aisle.
For one, his rationale closely echoes Donald Trump’s claims of a politicized Justice Department — even though the charges against Hunter Biden and Trump, the first president to be convicted of a felony, are very different. Trump was charged with trying to overturn the 2020 election and endangering national security through his handling of classified documents, though both cases were dismissed after his 2024 election victory.
Trump was quick to slam Biden’s pardon as an “abuse and miscarriage of Justice.” Even some Democrats — including Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Arizona Rep. Greg Stanton and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet— publicly denounced Biden’s decision. They warned it could set a dangerous precedent, especially before the return of Trump, who has vowed to pardon Jan. 6 rioters and baselessly suggested he could even pardon himself.
“Joe Biden put self before country, and just pardoned his son”, tweeted Joe Walsh, an anti-Trump former Republican congressman who had endorsed Biden. “And that selfishness took the ‘no one is above the law’ argument against Trump off the table.”
Presidential pardons have been commonplace since the days of George Washington, who forgave the two men convicted of treason for their role in the Whiskey Rebellion. Over the years, many have been cause for celebration as well as controversy.
What is a pardon?
Presidential pardon authority is inspired by early English law, which granted kings “the prerogative of mercy.”
Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution gives the president the power to “grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”
“The U.S. Constitution grants the president of the United States what’s called unilateral clemency power”, explains Lauren-Brooke Eisen, the senior director of the Brennan Center’s Justice Program.
