Joe Biden's Full Flop on pardoning Hunter Biden after saying for months he wouldn't

For months, President Joe Biden and aides said repeatedly he would not pardon his son Hunter Biden, who was facing federal charges over guns and taxes. But on Dec. 1, Joe Biden announced a wide-ranging pardon.

Biden’s comments about a potential pardon date back to at least summer. On June 6, ABC News’ David Muir asked Joe Biden, "Have you ruled out a pardon for your son?" Biden responded, "Yes."

A week later, Biden reiterated to reporters during an international summit that "I will not pardon him," nor commute his sentence, a lesser action that would have reduced Hunter Biden’s sentence but not lifted his conviction.

On several other occasions, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre echoed Biden’s position that he would not pardon his son.

As recently as Nov. 7, a reporter asked Jean-Pierre about a possible pardon in advance of a scheduled Dec. 12 sentencing on the gun charges and Dec. 16 sentencing on the tax fraud charges. She said, "We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no." 

Then, a little more than three weeks later, Joe Biden did an about-face.

"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 wrote in a statement announcing the pardon. The statement continued, "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."

At PolitiFact, we have a Flip-O-Meter to measure politicians’ consistency on issues. The rating does not make a value judgment about a politician who changes positions on an issue, but does seek to document position changes. 

The pardon’s most immediate effect is to end the federal cases against Hunter Biden.

He was found guilty by a Delaware jury of three charges related to lying about his drug use on a federal gun purchase form. 

Separately, the younger Biden pleaded guilty to charges related to filing and paying taxes from 2016 to 2019. 

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But the "full and unconditional pardon" that Joe Biden issued goes further, covering "offenses against the United States which (Hunter Biden) has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024." This immunizes Hunter Biden against potential efforts by the incoming Trump administration to prosecute him on other matters from his past, such as his work on behalf of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Other presidents also have used the pardon power to benefit relatives. Bill Clinton pardoned his half brother, Roger Clinton, for drug-related charges. Donald Trump pardoned his son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner, on convictions for false tax returns, witness retaliation and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. (Trump, as president-elect, has tapped Charles Kushner to be his ambassador to France.)

"Using the pardon power in a way that exclusively benefits those who are related to or close to the president is an abuse of the pardon power, which is intended to be used in a way that advances the public good by improving the functioning of the justice system," said Dan Kobil, a Capital University Law School professor. "Biden or any president interfering with the justice system to benefit a family member undermines the reasons we gave the president the power in the first place."

At the same time, Kobil said, "We must also be cognizant that the incoming president has repeatedly promised to use the government to exact ‘retribution’ against his enemies" and it’s "hardly speculative" to believe that Hunter Biden "could be a prime target of the incoming administration."

Joe Biden spent months saying he would not pardon Hunter Biden, and his press secretary repeatedly echoed that position. Then Joe Biden issued a sweeping pardon.

Whatever the justification for the president’s pardon, his actions are a complete change in position. We rate it a Full Flop.