He said he wouldn’t do it. The White House press secretary got snippy with reporters when she was pressed on the matter. "It is a no. It will be a no. It is a no, and I don’t have anything else to add," Karine Jean-Pierre told an Associated Press reporter in July. "Will he pardon his son? No."
Well, on Sunday, with just 50 days left in office, it was a yes. President Joe Biden issued a "full and unconditional pardon" of his son Hunter Biden for the crimes of illegally buying a gun and tax evasion—as well as for any other crimes the onetime drug addict "may have committed or taken part in" between 2014 and 2024.
The pardon came weeks ahead of sentencing hearings for Hunter Biden in Delaware and California in which he was facing a prison sentence. Biden said in a statement on Sunday evening that Hunter Biden was "selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted" as a result of pressure from "several of my political opponents in Congress."
Though Hunter Biden openly discussed smoking crack at the time he bought a handgun, Biden said people "are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form." And while Hunter Biden pleaded guilty for failing to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes, Biden suggested his son was struggling with a "serious addiction" and should have received a "non-criminal resolution."
"It is clear that Hunter was treated differently," 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—and that is wrong." He did not indicate whether he believed President-elect Donald Trump, who faced federal and state criminal cases, was singled out for prosecution by the Justice Department and district attorneys in New York and Georgia.
Biden and his allies have long insisted the president would not pardon his son. The president dispatched a question from ABC News' David Muir in June on the matter, declaring that he would rule out a pardon. A week later, Biden reiterated that pledge in a news conference. "I said I abide by the jury decision," he told reporters at the time. "I will do that and I will not pardon him."
Jean-Pierre made similar statements, including as recently as Nov. 7. "We've been asked that question multiple times and our answer stands—which is no," she said during a press briefing.
Trump pardoned a number of longtime allies, friends, and associates throughout his first administration, including Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt when he refused to stop targeting Latino drivers in an effort to arrest illegal immigrants. Bannon, Manafort, Stone, and Arpaio did not immediately respond to requests for comment.