Will Hunter Biden’s Pardon Backfire on the First Family?
President Biden’s “full and unconditional pardon” of his son Hunter could have an unexpected and, for the Bidens, unwelcome result — depriving Hunter of the Fifth Amendment’s shield and leaving the first son vulnerable to a subpoena to take the stand and testify under oath.
The possibility that the pardon could backfire on the first family could impart new life to efforts by congressional Republicans — now the majority — to investigate the Biden family for their business dealings. That subject led to the opening of an impeachment inquiry against the 46th president that stalled.
One of the leaders of that effort, Congressman Jim Jordan, took to X in the wake of the pardon to declare, “Democrats said there was nothing to our impeachment inquiry. If that’s the case, why did Joe Biden just issue Hunter Biden a pardon for the very things we were inquiring about?”
The lawmaker who led the impeachment inquiry, Representative James Comer, went on Newsmax to share that he looks forward to “talking to Attorney General Bondi about” the younger Biden’s inability, after the pardon, to invoke the Fifth Amendment. He was referring to the former Florida attorney general who is Trump’s nominee to replace Attorney General Garland, Pam Bondi. On Sunday, via social media, Mr. Comer resumed using the appellation “Biden Crime Family” to describe the Wilmington clan.
President Biden is, under Department of Justice policy, shielded from prosecution while in office — that prohibition is what ended Special Counsel Jack Smith’s twin prosecutions of President Trump after he won last month’s election. Once Mr. Biden leaves office, though, he will be vulnerable to prosecution under the parameters laid out in Trump v. United States, where all official presidential acts are presumptively immune. Some — like the issuance of pardons — enjoy absolute immunity.
The president’s act of clemency for his son is extraordinarily broad, covering all “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.” The younger Mr. Biden has already been convicted of lying on a gun form, and was set to go to trial on tax evasion charges.
The period prescribed by the pardon begins just before the younger Mr. Biden joined the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian holding company that has come under scrutiny by congressional Republicans, who accuse the Bidens — the president, his brother James, and Hunter — of trading on the family’s political influence for profit.
While the Biden justice department focused on prosecuting Hunter for gun and tax crimes that stemmed from his drug and alcohol addiction, House Republicans were focused on what Mr. Comer calls the Biden family’s “criminal enterprise.” The GOP has long alleged that the Bidens took bribes from foreign entities, and that the justice department slow-walked investigations.
That pardon means that Mr. Biden fils no longer faces legal jeopardy for any of them.
The possibility that the pardon could backfire on the first family could impart new life to efforts by congressional Republicans — now the majority — to investigate the Biden family for their business dealings. That subject led to the opening of an impeachment inquiry against the 46th president that stalled.
One of the leaders of that effort, Congressman Jim Jordan, took to X in the wake of the pardon to declare, “Democrats said there was nothing to our impeachment inquiry. If that’s the case, why did Joe Biden just issue Hunter Biden a pardon for the very things we were inquiring about?”
The lawmaker who led the impeachment inquiry, Representative James Comer, went on Newsmax to share that he looks forward to “talking to Attorney General Bondi about” the younger Biden’s inability, after the pardon, to invoke the Fifth Amendment. He was referring to the former Florida attorney general who is Trump’s nominee to replace Attorney General Garland, Pam Bondi. On Sunday, via social media, Mr. Comer resumed using the appellation “Biden Crime Family” to describe the Wilmington clan.
President Biden is, under Department of Justice policy, shielded from prosecution while in office — that prohibition is what ended Special Counsel Jack Smith’s twin prosecutions of President Trump after he won last month’s election. Once Mr. Biden leaves office, though, he will be vulnerable to prosecution under the parameters laid out in Trump v. United States, where all official presidential acts are presumptively immune. Some — like the issuance of pardons — enjoy absolute immunity.
The president’s act of clemency for his son is extraordinarily broad, covering all “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.” The younger Mr. Biden has already been convicted of lying on a gun form, and was set to go to trial on tax evasion charges.
The period prescribed by the pardon begins just before the younger Mr. Biden joined the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian holding company that has come under scrutiny by congressional Republicans, who accuse the Bidens — the president, his brother James, and Hunter — of trading on the family’s political influence for profit.
While the Biden justice department focused on prosecuting Hunter for gun and tax crimes that stemmed from his drug and alcohol addiction, House Republicans were focused on what Mr. Comer calls the Biden family’s “criminal enterprise.” The GOP has long alleged that the Bidens took bribes from foreign entities, and that the justice department slow-walked investigations.
That pardon means that Mr. Biden fils no longer faces legal jeopardy for any of them.
70-79, M
