President Biden faces mounting criticism Monday over his “blanket” pardon of his son Hunter Biden, with critics saying Trump is using it to criticize his “politicization” of the Justice Department. They are concerned that this could further deepen their views and undermine the role of the Justice Department. An important check on executive power.
In a statement announcing the pardon, Biden took aim at what he called a politically motivated investigation.
“No reasonable person considering the facts of Hunter's case could come to any other conclusion than that Hunter was chosen solely because he is my son, and that is wrong,” the president wrote. .
That Biden He spent his final weeks as a lame duck president. Protecting his only living son from prosecution is not as shocking to legal analysts as the breadth of the pardon itself, which spanned nearly 11 years since January 2014, when Mr. Hunter was appointed to the board of a Ukrainian energy company. There wasn't. Burisma ended on Sunday when the White House announced the pardon.
That deadline includes both federal firearms possession and tax evasion convictions for which Hunter was convicted this year, but experts say the scope of the pardon extends to any acts committed over a decade. It says the ban could be expanded, effectively guaranteeing a ban on the president's son. You will be responsible for any activities undertaken during that period.
Former federal prosecutor and congressman Trey Gowdy said in an interview with Fox News Digital that Hunter Biden's pardon “honestly couldn't be more extensive” in both length and scope. spoke.
Gowdy said the deadlines included in the pardon cover “nearly all federal statutes of limitations.” “For the vast majority of federal crimes, this covers this period and means they cannot be prosecuted.”
IRS special counsel says not to 'criticize' Biden on Hunter Biden's legal story
President Biden and Hunter Biden (Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Critics have noted that Biden broke with his repeated declaration earlier this year that he would not pardon Hunter. First, in June, he was convicted of three counts of felonious use of a firearm, and then in September, after pleading guilty to separate federal charges of tax evasion.
“I'm not going to do anything,” Biden said this summer. “I comply jury decision. ”
This week, Biden did the opposite.
White House officials insist that Biden continues to stand by his assertion that “no one is above the law” this summer.
“As he said in his statement, he has deep respect for our country's justice system,” a spokesperson told FOX News Digital. “And, as a wide range of legal experts have noted, this pardon is clearly within his authority and justified by the facts of the case.”
“The pardon power is written in absolute terms and, in my view, the president could even pardon himself,” Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor, wrote in an op-ed on Fox News Digital. I wrote it.
“But what's constitutional doesn't necessarily mean what's ethical and right,” Turley said, adding that Biden's decision to pardon Hunter is “one of the most disgraceful pardons in the checkered history of presidential pardons.” 'He added his own opinion.
“The portrayal of his son as a victim stands in sharp contrast to the sense of immunity and power that Hunter conveys in his response,” Turley said.
Biden pardons son Hunter Biden before leaving Oval Office
Hunter Biden and wife Melissa Cohen Biden (Ryan Corrado/AFP via Getty Images)
Some lawmakers and legal analysts have separately cited concerns that pardons could further erode public trust in the Justice Department, calling it a department that could be “weaponized” rather than a department that seeks to weaponize it. This gives credence to President Trump's frequent complaints that the U.S. is a political machine. Act independently with little political influence.
Ryan Williams, a longtime Republican strategist and communicator, said in an interview on Fox News that by granting a pardon, Mr. I basically support that opinion.”
Gowdy said Biden's pardon reflects his long-held view that the Justice Department has become too politicized in recent years and needs reform, and that a House committee led by Biden He cited the recent swirl of investigations under the administration that investigated the conduct of Both the Biden and Trump families.
“When I was a prosecutor, politics had nothing to do with the job,” Gordy said. “I didn't know about any of my colleagues' politics.” He said the focus should return to “targeting fact patterns instead of targeting people.”
“Prosecuting political opponents, involving family members, all of this is new and it's all really dangerous.”
Special Counsel David Weiss, who brought both cases against Hunter Biden, defended his actions against claims that the prosecution was politically motivated, in a court filing Monday. , noted that Hunter Biden's team “has made every possible argument and filed eight motions to dismiss the charges.” The reason why it had to be rejected is because all of it was found to be without merit. ”
Weiss added: “There is and never has been any evidence of vengeance or selective prosecution in this case.”
President Biden's pardon of son Hunter will be a political gift to Trump going forward
hunter biden (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Still, some people object to the intense investigation into Hunter Biden, pointing out that he likely would not have been indicted in the gun case had his father not become president.
Gowdy, a former Republican congressman, said he ultimately agreed with the argument.
“I prosecuted gun cases for six years,” Gordy told FOX News Digital. “I would not have taken this case.”
“There are a lot of really serious federal violent crimes, and I wouldn't have wasted resources on the gun part,” Gordy explained.
But the former South Carolina lawmaker said that didn't mean he would exonerate Biden's son.
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Regarding other allegations against Biden, Gordy said, “I definitely would have moved forward with the tax and corruption allegations.”
Ultimately, the Justice Department and FBI need “significant reform,” Gowdy said.
“They need to get out of politics.”
Fox News Digital's Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
