President Biden announced late Sunday that he had signed a pardon for Hunter Biden, acquitting his son in both federal cases and shocking the political world.
President Biden has maintained that the charges against his son were politically motivated.
Please read the amnesty announcement below.
President Joe Biden's statement
Today I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere in the decision-making of the Department of Justice, and I kept that promise even as I watched my son be selectively and unfairly prosecuted. Absent aggravating factors such as use in a crime, multiple purchases, or purchasing a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are rarely tried for felonies solely because of how they filled out gun forms. Non-criminal settlements are usually awarded to people who missed paying their taxes due to severe addiction, but then repaid them with interest and penalties. It's clear that Hunter was given special treatment.
His legal accusations only came after several of my political opponents in Congress attacked me and incited me to contest my election. A carefully negotiated plea deal agreed to by the Justice Department then unraveled in court, with many political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure to the process. Had a plea deal been reached, Hunter's case would have been resolved fairly and reasonably.
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, but that is incorrect. Efforts have continued to break Hunter, who has been sober for five and a half years, even in the face of relentless attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to crush Hunter, they tried to crush me too—and there's no reason to believe it will stop here. That's enough.
Throughout my career, I have followed a simple principle: Just tell the American people the truth. They will be fair-minded. This is the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with it, I also believe that raw politics has infected this process and that it has led to miscarriages of justice. And after I made this decision this weekend, there was no point in delaying it further. I hope the American people understand why our father and president is making this decision.
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