Roving Periscope: Dual “miscarriage of justice,” as Biden pardons Trump, and his own son!
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: What a judicial system a ‘democratic’ America has!
Before leaving the White House on January 20, 2025, outgoing President Joe Biden, 82, ‘pardoned’ the incoming President-elect Donald Trump of his perceived sins—and then reversed his earlier decision to pardon his own son, Hunter Biden, as well.
While Trump was happy last week being let off the hook, he questioned President Biden for pardoning his son. Calling it “a miscarriage of justice,” in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, he said, “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
The J6 hostages are a reference to Trump’s Republican supporters imprisoned for their role in the January 6, 2021 riots and the siege of US Capitol Hill. Trump called them the imprisoned people hostages claiming they were acting peacefully and patriotically. In any case, Trump was said to be preparing to pardon them, the media reported on Monday.
In a statement, President Biden addressed the charges against his son, arguing that individuals in similar situations–such as those with tax payment issues due to addiction–typically receive non-criminal resolutions.
He contended that Hunter’s case was treated “differently,” leading to felony charges despite the absence of aggravating factors. Biden also stressed his commitment to not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, despite his belief that his son had been “selectively and unfairly prosecuted,”—by his own administration-run US Department of Justice!
“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. 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 statement read.
Biden explained that the charges against his son were initiated after political opponents in the US Congress pushed for the case to be brought forward. He added that a plea deal, which had been negotiated with the Department of Justice, unraveled in court due to political pressure.
“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 courtroom–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,” the statement added.
The outgoing President insisted that the charges were politically motivated, asserting that Hunter was targeted because of his relationship with the incumbent US President. Biden concluded his statement by expressing his belief that, while he had faith in the justice system, the legal process had been influenced by politics, leading to a “miscarriage of justice.”
Interestingly, Hunter Biden, 54, had pleaded guilty to failing to pay USD 1.4 million in taxes during a period when he allegedly spent excessively on drugs, luxury items, and other activities. He was expected to go to jail on December 16 but heaved a sigh of relief after getting a fatherly pardon.
But his doting dad, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.—also known as Joe Biden—on Sunday pardoned Hunter, reversing an earlier stance of not intervening in the Justice Department’s handling of his son’s cases.
A federal investigation launched in 2018 against Hunter by US Attorney David Weiss focused on alleged tax and money laundering, including USD 4.79 million in wire transfers from entities tied to Chinese energy tycoon Ye Jianming and CEFC China Energy. These transactions, linked to his businesses, gained attention after Hunter’s laptop was seized ahead of Joe Biden’s presidential election.
He was convicted on three felonies for lying about drug use while purchasing a gun in 2018. Prosecutors revealed cocaine residue was found in his gun pouch. He said his guilty plea aimed to protect his family from further embarrassment and his actions, driven by addiction, had been unfairly exploited for political reasons.
Hunter pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges for which he could have faced up to 17 years in federal prison while the gun-related charges could lead to up to 25 years. Likely, he would have served up to 36 months and 16 months behind bars, respectively, and the sentences for the tax and gun charges would have run concurrently, with him serving the longer term.
Hunter’s sentencing was scheduled for December 16.
Acknowledging his past, he said on Sunday in a statement, “I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.”
“I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted,” he added.
In the Trump cases, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington quickly dismissed charges on Monday last week that Trump illegally tried to upend his 2020 re-election loss. She did so after US special counsel Jack Smith acknowledged in a court filing that long-standing Justice Department policy precluded prosecution of a sitting president.
In another court filing, Smith also asked an appellate court in Atlanta to remove Trump from a pending appeal. The prosecutor had originally filed the appeal seeking to reinstate dismissed charges that Trump hoarded hundreds of classified national security documents at his oceanside estate in Florida when he left the presidency in 2021.
The prosecutor said he stood behind the merits of both indictments against Trump, even as he said the charges should be dropped.
Trump, on the Truth Social media platform, declared, “These cases, like all of the other cases I have been forced to go through, are empty and lawless, and should never have been brought.”
He said that more than USD 100 million in taxpayer money “has been wasted in the Democrat Party’s fight against their Political Opponent, ME. It was a political hijacking, and a low point in the History of our Country that such a thing could have happened, and yet, I persevered, against all odds, and WON.”
During his poll campaign, Trump vowed that if he was elected for a second non-consecutive term, he would fire Smith “within two seconds” of assuming the presidency again. But the media reported that Smith might leave the Justice Department ahead of Trump’s taking office.
In the Washington case, Trump, a Republican, was accused of pressuring state officials after the 2020 election to change election results that showed Joe Biden had defeated him and of spreading lies that the Democrat won only because of massive vote fraud and election irregularities.
The prosecutor asked Chutkan to dismiss the case “without prejudice,” leaving open the possibility that the charges could be renewed after Trump leaves office a second time in January 2029.
In a statement after Smith’s two court filings, Trump’s running mate in the election, Vice President-elect JD Vance, cited Trump’s legal peril as he ran for a new four-year term in the White House.
“If Donald J. Trump had lost an election, he may very well have spent the rest of his life in prison,” Vance said on social media, adding, “It’s time to ensure what happened to President Trump never happens in this country again.”
