According to lawyer and legal expert Mike Davis, an attorney with a conservative legal group called the Article 3 Project, President Joe Biden’s sweeping pardon of his son Hunter Biden for all federal crimes committed in the past decade could land both him and his son in new legal trouble because of what that means for future cases.
Namely, Davis pointed out that now Hunter can, since he was pardoned for all his federal crimes, be called to testify on anything and everything relevant to those crimes, namely the alleged influence peddling abroad. Importantly, the sweeping pardon means that he cannot invoke 5th Amendment privileges when called to testify, as those only apply to a witness who believes making a statement could be incriminating. As Hunter was pardoned, whatever he says cannot be incriminating.
As a reminder, President Biden’s pardon of Hunter provided, “To All to Whom These Presents Shall Come, Greeting: Be It Known, That This Day, I, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of the United States, Pursuant to My Powers Under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1, of the Constitution, Have Granted Unto ROBERT HUNTER BIDEN A Full and Unconditional Pardon.”
It continued, noting that the pardon is “For those 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, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions) by Special Counsel David C. Weiss in Docket No. 1:23-cr-00061-MN in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware and Docket No. 2:23-CR-00599-MCS-1 in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.”
It was referencing that pardon that Davis chimed in on X (formerly Twitter) and noted that the pardon could, though it gets Hunter out of trouble in this scenario, create a much larger future headache for the Bidens by disallowing Hunter from pleading the Fifth when pressed on matters regarding those crimes for which he was pardoned.
Explaining that potentially quite large problem, Davis said, “If Biden pardons someone–like, say, Hunter or Jack Smith–they can no longer invoke the Fifth Amendment’s right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Congress or grand juries. If those pardoned refuse to testify, they can face new charges for criminal contempt.”
Davis isn’t the only to think so. Speaking to Newsweek about the matter, Kevin Adams, a criminal defense lawyer, noted that Davis is probably right about Hunter’s inability to plead the Fifth moving forward. “The upside to Joe Biden’s pardon is that Hunter Biden no longer enjoys the right to assert his 5th Amendment Right against self-incrimination and contempt of Congress is also a crime,” Adams told the outlet.
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For reference, the relevant portion of the Fifth Amendment, which is about the rights of criminal defendants generally, provides, “No person . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” Given that Hunter has been pardoned for all relevant crimes, he can’t be testifying against himself, as no charges could be brought, and thus can’t plead the Fifth.
Watch KJP change her tune and defend the pardon here:
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