A pardon in search of a justification

But not in need of one

We’ve become used to the presidential pardon as presidential perk. Presidents use this power to reward their friends, cronies, financial contributors, and family members.

For example, Donald Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law. Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton. He also pardoned Marc Rich, whose ex-wife contributed to Bill and Hillary’s campaign and who was a fugitive from justice at the time of the pardon. Kushner and Rich were world class crooks — so found by the juries that heard their cases.

I doubt the Framers intended the pardon power to be used this way. In any case, the practice is disgusting. But it’s lawful and commonplace, so there’s no point in getting worked up about it.

Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter is different, though, because Biden promised he wouldn’t do it. Furthermore, according to this report by NBC News, Biden decided at the time of his son’s criminal conviction that he would publicly say he wouldn’t pardon his son, even though a pardon remained on the table. Biden was still a candidate for president at the time.

Still, it’s hardly a scoop that Joe Biden is a liar. And if we think of his promise not to pardon Hunter as a campaign promise, the fact that he reneged becomes pretty unremarkable.

It would have been nice, though, if Biden had come up with a sensible rationale for his alleged change of mind. Instead, he served up this:

Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.

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. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.

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 – and that is wrong. 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.

This is rubbish. For one thing, the facts are the same now as they were when Biden promised not to pardon his son.

Furthermore, it may be true that people rarely go to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form and that people who don’t pay their taxes are typically given non-criminal resolutions. But Hunter Biden committed both of these crimes. He wasn’t brought to trial “solely” for having committed one of them.

In addition, as I understand it, Hunter Biden would have avoided trial if his lawyers hadn’t tried to interpret Hunter’s plea deal — the one Joe Biden mentions is his statement — as resolving other possible criminal charges that were under investigation. The plea deal collapsed in court as a result of overreaching by Hunter’s team, not due to some conspiracy by Joe’s political opponents in Congress.

Thus, there’s no reason to believe that Hunter Biden was singled out because he was the president’s son. Indeed, this accusation becomes absurd when one remembers that the Justice Department that put him on trial was controlled by Democrats appointed by Joe.

It’s true that Republican members of Congress clamored for the investigation and charging of Hunter. But the Biden-Garland Justice Department didn’t take its cues from angry Republicans. Recall, too, that the Biden-Garland DOJ let Joe Biden himself off the criminal hook even though it found that he retained classified documents and improperly shared their contents. The same DOJ brought a criminal charge against Donald Trump for the same offense.

As lame and dishonest as Biden’s statement is, there’s nothing to be done about this pardon. The charitable thing is to hope that Hunter Biden — by almost all accounts I’m aware of, a real skunk of a human being — can stay off of drugs, be faithful to his current wife, have a positive relationship with his Arkansas daughter, and start treating others with a decent amount of courtesy and respect.