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Evening Report

Monday, Dec. 2 | By Jonathan Easley

© Kris Connor, Wire Image

Democrats chide Biden for pardoning son Hunter

DEMOCRATS ARE REELING after President Biden’s move to pardon his son Hunter Biden sent shockwaves across Washington and beyond.

Hunter Biden faced sentencing later this month after being found guilty on felony gun charges and after pleading guilty to tax evasion in a separate case. His lawyers have already moved to have the cases dismissed.

The president promised repeatedly over the past year that he would not grant clemency to his son, saying he would respect the judicial process however it played out. When Trump’s convictions came down from the hush money case, Biden posted on X that “no one is above the law.”

Biden not only backtracked on his promise but he went further, suggesting his son had been targeted for political purposes and granting immunity for any crime Hunter Biden may have committed dating back to 2014.

Special counsel David Weiss, a Trump appointee whom Attorney General Merrick Garland granted special counsel status to probe Hunter Biden, disputed the president's claim "raw politics" had "infected" his son's case.

“There was none and never has been any evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case,” Weiss wrote in court filings.

Weiss argued that even if Hunter Biden is spared punishment, the pardon does not absolve him of guilt.

"That does not mean the grand jury’s decision to charge him, based on a finding of probable cause, should be wiped away as if it never occurred...It also does not mean that his charges should be wiped away because the defendant falsely claimed that the charges were the result of some improper motive. No court has agreed with the defendant on these baseless claims, and his request to dismiss the indictment finds no support in the law or the practice of this district.”

Democrats have spent years warning that President-elect Trump’s attacks on the Justice Department represent a direct threat to democracy. They’ve defended the justice system against accusations of politically motivated prosecutions.

Now, Democrats fear Biden has effectively neutered those arguments.

“President Biden’s decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all,” Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) posted on X.

Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) disputed the president's characterization of Hunter Biden's prosecution being "infected" by politics.

“This wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers,” he said.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), a potential 2028 presidential contender, said the pardon will “tarnish” Biden’s reputation.

“This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents.”

WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS

Biden arrived in Angola on Monday afternoon for his final foreign trip as president.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who stated repeatedly that there was no chance Biden would ever pardon his son, defended the action in front of angry reporters on Air Force One.

She said Biden "agonized" over the decision but ultimately feared Trump’s Justice Department would never stop........

© The Hill