Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., accuses President Biden of “irreparably” harming the United States’ judicial system on his way out the door after granting a broad pardon to his son.
“President Biden stressed repeatedly that he would never pardon his own son for his heinous crimes. But yesterday night, he suddenly awarded Hunter a ‘Full and Unconditional Pardon’ for all offenses committed over a decade ago!” Johnson announced this in a statement on Monday.
“The Bidens’ use and abuse of our legal system have almost irreversibly harmed public trust in it. “Real reform cannot start soon enough!”
He is the highest-ranking Republican official to join the tidal wave of condemnation that accompanied the president’s stunning decision on Sunday evening.
Biden explained that he pardoned Hunter because he had been “treated differently” than others investigated for comparable offenses, portraying him as a victim of political weaponization.
“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” according to his declaration.
“No reasonable person looking at the facts of Hunter’s cases can conclude anything other that Hunter was picked out only because he is my son, which is incorrect. There has been an effort to break Hunter, who has remained clean for five and a half years, despite relentless attacks and selective prosecution. They’ve attempted to break Hunter, as well as me, and there’s no reason to expect it will stop here. “Enough is enough.”
The pardon has an impact on Hunter’s firearm and tax charges, which he was scheduled to be sentenced on soon. However, in a departure from convention, the decree covers all conceivable infractions from the beginning of 2014 to December 1, 2024.
In principle, that would protect any claims made by Republicans whenever they control the levers of power in Washington, D.C. next year.
Hunter is Biden’s only surviving son, following Beau Biden’s death from brain cancer in 2015.
The 81-year-old president’s decision to pardon him caused shockwaves among members of both parties.
“I like President Biden, but I believe he got this one wrong. This was not a politically motivated prosecution. Hunter committed offenses and was convicted by a jury of his peers,” Arizona Rep. Greg Stanton, D, wrote on X.
House GOP Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., commented, “You’ve been lied to at every turn by this administration and the crooked Biden family. This is simply the latest in their long-running cover-up operation. They never play by the rules they impose on everyone else.”
Meanwhile, many Democrats who spoke up defended Biden.
“If you defended the 34x felon, who committed sexual assault, stole national security documents, and tried running a coup on his country…you can sit out the Hunter Biden pardon discussion,” a letter from Representative Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.