Hunter Biden smiles after receiving pardon
This is the first time President Joe Biden's son has been photographed leaving an Arby's in Santa Barbara since he was pardoned by his father. (back grid)
President Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, ending a more than six-year feud that has sparked extensive investigations by the Justice Department and the House and Senate into his conduct and business dealings.
Hunter Biden was convicted of three felony gun crimes stemming from Special Counsel David Weiss' investigation. The eldest son was also charged with federal tax crimes for failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. Before the trial, Hunter Biden made a surprise guilty plea.
Biden pardons son Hunter Biden before leaving Oval Office
The charges carried a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison. His sentencing was scheduled for December 16th.
Let's look back at how it all started.
President Biden walks with his son Hunter Biden wearing a Team USA jacket to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on July 26, 2024 in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
The federal investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018.
The investigation was based in part on suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to overseas transactions. Those SARs involved funds from “China and other foreign countries,” according to a person familiar with the investigation.
Fox News first reported on the existence of some sort of federal investigation involving Hunter Biden in October 2020, just before the last presidential election. It was later revealed that the FBI had subpoenaed a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden in the course of an existing money laundering investigation.
The article about the laptop was widely condemned by Democrats and mainstream media as Russian disinformation. At the time, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe acknowledged that the laptop was “not part of a Russian disinformation campaign,” a claim rejected by Democrats and many media outlets.
Social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook censored and restricted Articles related to Hunter Biden's laptop circulated before the 2020 presidential election.
Only in 2022 did the media confirm that the laptop did indeed belong to Hunter Biden and held legitimate records belonging to him.
Twitter, whose new owner is Elon Musk, released records about its decision to block the circulation of Hunter Biden's article — at the time he had been under federal investigation for nearly two years. Even though it was.
Hunter Biden acknowledged an investigation into his “tax matters” in December 2020 after his father was elected president.
However, Hunter Biden's business dealings were also simultaneously investigated in 2019 by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). Specifically, the senators were investigating Hunter Biden's business dealings with Ukrainian natural gas. A company called Brismer Holdings.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) stands in the U.S. Capitol after a Senate luncheon on Tuesday, September 24, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, via Getty Images)
Grassley and Johnson released a report in September 2020 calling Hunter Biden's position on Burisma's board “problematic” and preventing it from “effectively implementing policy regarding Ukraine.” Obama administration officials said they “knew” that there was.
Hunter Biden joined Burisma in April 2014, at the time reportedly linking the company with consulting firm Blue Star Strategies to help the natural gas company fight corruption charges in Ukraine. While Hunter Biden was on the company's board, Joe Biden was vice president and running for office. US-Ukraine relations and the Obama administration's policies.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, via Getty Images)
Also in 2019, Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine drew attention during the first impeachment of current President-elect Donald Trump.
House Republicans had hoped to have Hunter Biden testify during impeachment proceedings in the fall of 2019.
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Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives in December 2019 and was acquitted in February 2020 on both articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
In a July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, President Trump discussed the Biden family's actions and business dealings in Ukraine, particularly Hunter Biden's business with Burisma and Joe Biden's ex-Ukrainian relationship. He was impeached after pressuring Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin to launch an investigation into his successful masterminding. Exiled.
At the same time as that call, Hunter Biden was under federal investigation for suspicious foreign transactions.
Pictured are Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Donald Trump. (Reuters/Getty/AP Images)
Trump's request was seen as a quid pro quo by Democrats, as millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Ukraine had been frozen. Democrats also claimed that Trump was interfering in the 2020 presidential election, including by asking foreign leaders to investigate Democratic political opponents.
Republicans were investigating Hunter Biden's business dealings, particularly those related to Burisma. House Republicans, who were in the minority at the time, requested multiple times to subpoena Hunter Biden to provide testimony and documents related to Trump's impeachment and his business dealings, which were central to the proceedings.
Biden acknowledged that while he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma, and Hunter Biden had a highly lucrative role on the board, receiving thousands of dollars a month. The vice president at the time threatened to withhold $1 billion in vital U.S. aid unless Shokin was fired.
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“I said, 'You're not going to get a billion yen.' … I looked at them and said, 'I'm leaving the country in six hours. If you don't fire the prosecutor, you won't get the money.' he recalled telling then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, a conversation he had at a Council on Foreign Relations event. in 2018.
Meanwhile, after President Biden took office, the House Oversight Committee, led by Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), began investigating Hunter Biden's business dealings and that of the Biden family. Comer ultimately determined that the Biden family and its associates had received more than $27 million from foreign individuals or entities since 2014.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer speaks at a press conference. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
But it wasn't until 2023 that IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler brought allegations of politicking in the federal investigation into Hunter Biden to Congress.
The two men argued that political influence influenced prosecutorial decisions in the federal investigation led by David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, who was appointed by President Trump and requested the appointment of special counsel.
After Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler testified publicly, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Mr. Weiss as special prosecutor to continue the investigation into the eldest son, eventually leading to two separate investigations in Delaware and California. filed federal charges in the jurisdiction of
Special Counsel David Weiss (U.S. Department of Justice)
House Republicans continued to investigate allegations of political exploitation brought by Messrs. Ziegler and Shapley, as well as findings from the Comer probe related to the Biden family's business dealings.
Biden's 'impeachable conduct' and 'deceived America to enrich his family': House Republican report
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith are working together to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Biden to determine whether he had any involvement in his son's business dealings. started. Biden has repeatedly denied any involvement, despite evidence that he took part in meetings and calls with his son and foreign business partners.
On Thursday, October 12, 2023, Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, leaves a Republican caucus meeting at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
In August, House members released their 292-page final report, saying Biden had engaged in “impeachable conduct.” They claimed he had “abused his power” and “defrauded the United States to enrich his family.”
Republicans said there was “overwhelming evidence” that Biden participated in a “conspiracy to monetize a public office of public trust to enrich his family.” They alleged that the Biden family and their business associates received tens of millions of dollars from foreign interests by “leading them to believe that these payments would provide them with access and influence over President Biden.”
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, leaves a House Oversight Committee meeting at the Capitol. (Photo provided by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images) (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
In the summer of 2023, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to federal gun charges as part of a plea deal that fell apart before a federal judge in Delaware. In a stunning reversal, Hunter Biden was forced to plead not guilty and will stand trial this year.
Hunter Biden pleaded guilty before trial for federal tax crimes.
President Biden's pardon of his son comes after months of vowing not to pardon Americans.
But on Sunday, the president announced a blanket pardon that applies to all crimes against the United States that Hunter Biden “committed or may have committed” from January 1, 2014 to December 1, 2024.
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“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere in the decisions of the Department of Justice, and I kept that promise even as I watched my son be selectively and unfairly prosecuted,” Biden said. “In the face of relentless attacks and selective prosecution, there was an effort to break down Hunter, who has been sober for five and a half years. But there's no reason to do that.'' Trust me, it will stop here. ”
“I hope the American people understand why my father and my president are making this decision,” Biden added.
