Conservatives are reeling after President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter’s gun and tax charges, breaking a prior promise that he wouldn’t use presidential powers in his son’s favor.
“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,” Biden claimed in his statement.
This followed his praise of “a carefully negotiated plea deal” that, according to Biden, unraveled due to “political opponents in Congress.” However, the deal collapsed because the presiding judge questioned its unusual terms and potential unconstitutionality.
Joe Biden’s 11-year blanket pardon of Hunter is even more expansive than the pardon Gerald Ford gave to Richard Nixon in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. pic.twitter.com/9ThNOEGyo5
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 2, 2024
“For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded,” Biden added. “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.”
Yet the pardon has raised significant legal questions. The most controversial aspect is its breadth, which covers everything back to 2014 — the same year Hunter joined the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. This seemingly insulates Hunter from prosecution for foreign business dealings, including potential Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations, and raises questions about Joe Biden’s indirect connections to these activities.
Here we have Joe Biden bragging about how he totally manipulated the judicial system in another country and got the Ukrainian prosecutor fired
— Richard (@ricwe123) December 2, 2024
This all while that same prosecutor was investigating the company (Burisma) that just happened to be paying his son, Hunter….. pic.twitter.com/UwbNUQzIj2
As Mike Davis of the constitutionalist Article III Project explains, pardons can remove a person’s Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination. Without the fear of prosecution, Hunter could be compelled to testify under oath about matters covered by the pardon.
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.
— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) November 26, 2024
If those pardoned refuse to testify, they can face new charges for criminal contempt.
According to legal experts cited by various outlets, including Newsweek, the pardon might limit Hunter’s ability to invoke the Fifth Amendment if subpoenaed in future investigations. While this scenario is untested in cases involving high-level presidential pardons, it opens the possibility of Hunter being legally required to provide truthful testimony.
Importantly, presidential pardons don’t shield against state-level charges. States interested in unreported income from Hunter’s foreign dealings or allegations involving a discarded firearm may still pursue cases independently of the federal pardon.
Hunter’s compelled testimony could have profound consequences for Joe Biden if questions arise about his involvement in Burisma or Chinese-linked CEFC deals. Legal analysts argue it’s possible that testimony implicating Biden could reveal his deeper entanglements in his son’s business ventures, challenging the perception of the president as a “well-meaning dad.”
Prosecutors, however, may exercise discretion, as seen with special counsel Robert Hur’s decision not to pursue charges over Biden’s retention of classified documents. Still, forced transparency from Hunter would unearth potentially damaging details, eroding the Biden family’s narrative of innocence and further undermining the outgoing president’s legacy.
At the very least, the pardon could mark the end of the Biden family’s public image of unassailable morality. If Hunter testifies truthfully — or fails to testify and perjures himself — the legal and political fallout could devastate the former president’s reputation. For Joe and Hunter Biden, this saga may lead to consequences far beyond political disgrace.
