Speaking to ABC News’ David Muir at the Normandy American Cemetery on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, President Joe Biden said that he had ruled out pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, over gun charges that have been brought against him. He also said that he would “accept” the outcome of that trial, which is currently ongoing in Wilmington, Deleware.
As background, the formerly crack-addicted son of the current president was charged in September of 2023 with making false statements in the purchase of a firearm, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federal firearms licensed dealer, and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is addicted to a controlled substance.
The indictment reads: “On or about October 12, 2018, in the District of Delaware, the defendant, Robert Hunter Biden, in connection with the acquisition of a firearm, that is, a Colt Cobra 38SPL Revolver with serial number RA 551363…knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, intended and likely to deceive that dealer with respect to a fact material to the lawfulness of the sale of the firearm…in that the defendant, Robert Hunter Biden, provided a written statement on Form 4473 certifying he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.”
In any case, during the interview with Muir, President Biden was asked if he will accept the result of the ongoing federal gun charges trial against Hunter that is ongoing in Wilmington. He said, “yes.” Muir then asked Biden whether, since he will accept the outcome, he will rule out pardoning his son if Hunter is convicted of the charges. Biden again answered “yes.”
Conservative commentator Clay Travis, however, cast doubt on Biden’s assertion in a post about it on X, saying that though Biden now claims he won’t pardon Hunter, if the unexpected happens and he is, then he will renege on that promise and pardon his son. Travis wrote, “There is a 100% chance Joe Biden will pardon Hunter if Hunter is convicted of a crime. 100%. Does anyone actually doubt this? He’s lying.”
Hunter’s attorneys, after he was charged, accused the investigators of having been pushed into it by the GOP, saying, “As expected, prosecutors filed charges today that they deemed were not warranted just six weeks ago following a five-year investigation into this case. The evidence in this matter has not changed in the last six weeks, but the law has and so has MAGA Republicans’ improper and partisan interference in this process.”
The defense team also said, “Hunter Biden possessing an unloaded gun for 11 day [sic] was not a threat to public safety, but a prosecutor, with all the power imaginable, bending to political pressure presents a grave threat to our system of justice. We believe these charges are barred by the agreement the prosecutors made with Mr. Biden, the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional, and the facts that he did not violate that law, and we plan to demonstrate all of that in court.”
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Further, Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, released a statement on the matter, saying, “First, U.S. Attorney Weiss bowed to Republican pressure to file unprecedented and unconstitutional gun charges to renege on a non-prosecution resolution. Now, after five years of investigating with no new evidence – and two years after Hunter paid his taxes in full – the U.S. Attorney has piled on nine new charges when he had agreed just months ago to resolve this matter with a pair of misdemeanors.”
Featured image credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hunter_Biden_and_Abbe_Lowell_in_2023.jpg