United States President Joe Biden said on Sunday he had pardoned his son, Hunter Biden.
"Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted," he said in a statement released by the White House.
The younger Biden was convicted earlier this year of lying about his drug use when he bought a gun — a felony — and has also pleaded guilty in a separate tax evasion trial.
The White House had said repeatedly, and as recently as September, that Biden would not pardon or commute the sentences of his son, a recovering drug addict who became a target of Republicans, including US president-elect Donald Trump.
At the same time, criminal cases against Trump after a sweeping ruling on presidential immunity by the US supreme court — all but ensuring Biden's Republican rival will likely never see a jail cell, even after his landmark conviction for falsifying business records in May.
"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," Biden said.
"There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five-and-a-half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."
Biden said he had made the decision over the weekend. The US president, his wife, Jill Biden, and their family including Hunter, spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Nantucket, Massachusetts and returned to Washington on Saturday night.
"Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further," Biden said.
"I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."
