The President of the United States, Joe Biden, has announced this Sunday the pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, who in June was found guilty of crimes related to the illegal possession of weapons and in September admitted nine tax crimes to avoid going to prison, claiming that it is a “judicial error” instigated by his political rivals.
“Today I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said that I would not interfere with the decision-making of the Department of Justice, and I kept my word even when I have seen my son being selectively and unfairly prosecuted,” he reported in a press release.
The Democrat has justified this decision by claiming that Hunter “was treated differently” and that “he has been singled out just because he is (his) son.” “Hunter, who has been sober for five and a half years, has been brought down despite relentless attacks and targeted persecution. In trying to break Hunter, they have tried to break me, and there is no reason to believe this will stop here. Enough is enough,” the US president said.
Biden has ironically pointed out that the charges against his son Hunter “arose only after several of (his) political opponents in Congress instigated them” to attack him and “oppose (his) election.” Thus, he has pointed to the Republicans for “exerting political pressure on the process,” after the plea agreement in which Hunter admitted to nine tax evasion offenses in early September “fell apart in the courtroom.”
The president has criticized the fact that his son has been charged with a serious crime only “for how he filled out a weapons form” and that he has been put on trial for tax evasion crimes instead of receiving a “non-criminal resolution”, which is what is usually applied to “those who fall behind in paying their taxes due to serious addictions, but pay them later with interest and penalties.”
“I believe in the justice system, but while I have struggled with this, I also believe that crude politics has infected this process and led to a miscarriage of justice,” Biden said.
Hunter was found guilty last June on three charges in a case related to the illegal purchase of a firearm in 2018 after having acquired it when he was a known drug user. Two of the three crimes he was charged with carry a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, while the third of them is punishable by up to five years.
Last September, the son of the US president pleaded guilty to nine charges, three of them serious, related to the non-payment of $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019, as well as trying to declare as business expenses payments he made to prostitutes, a subscription to a pornographic website, and his daughter’s college tuition.
