In announcing that he was pardoning his son Hunter in two federal cases, President Biden said the criminal charges “came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.”
The president’s claim that the cases were politically motivated — which his son’s camp has long asserted — has been met with skepticism from some corners.
Biden was convicted by a jury of illegally purchasing a handgun in Delaware, and he pleaded guilty to tax charges in Los Angeles.
Here is what we know about the cases and the pardon.
What is the gun case?
Earlier this year, a federal jury in Delaware convicted Biden of federal gun crimes, including lying about being drug-free when he purchased and briefly owned a gun while he was addicted to crack cocaine.
Biden was on trial for three felony charges, and the jury convicted him of all three. In addition to lying on a federal background check form and giving a false statement to a federal firearms dealer, he was also convicted of possessing a gun while being an illicit drug user.
The testimony the jurors heard centered around a question Biden answered on a background check form at a Delaware gun store on Oct. 12, 2018: “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?”
Biden checked “No.”
Prosecutors told jurors that there was “overwhelming evidence” of Biden’s drug use in the years before and the months after the gun purchase. They summoned ex-girlfriends and photos of L.A. hotel rooms where Biden had gone on drug-fueled benders. Prosecutors also played excerpts of Biden’s memoir, Beautiful Things, in which he recounted years of hard partying following his brother’s death.
Abbe Lowell, the defense attorney, argued to jurors that his client had completed a rehab program in L.A. and that the gun salesman did not perceive Biden to be under the influence or glassy-eyed. No witness at the trial testified to observing Biden using drugs in the days after purchasing the Colt Cobra revolver.
His attorneys contended that the gun was never fired and remained locked up until Hallie Biden, his brother’s widow, found it on the morning of Oct. 23, 2018, and in a panic, disposed of it in a trash bin outside a nearby grocery store. Biden, who was dating Hallie Biden at the time, urged her to retrieve the gun once he discovered it missing, asking her, “Are you insane?”
When Hallie Biden returned to the supermarket, the gun was gone from the trash can, and Biden instructed her to contact police.
What did jurors say about the politics of the case?
The Times interviewed two jurors — a 51-year-old woman from northern Delaware and a 68-year-old man from the southern half of the state. Speaking on condition of anonymity, both said there was clear evidence that Biden knowingly lied about his drug addiction in order to buy the gun.
The male juror said that despite repeatedly noticing the first lady in the courtroom, he rarely thought of the fact that Hunter Biden was the president’s son.
“You are looking at him. You are looking at his family,” the juror said of the experience in court. But he said he “tried to block the rest of it out” because Biden “was just like everybody else.”
“It was not politically motivated. Politics played no part in this whatsoever. Again, we just went by the evidence,” the juror said.
What about the tax case?
In September, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to all nine federal tax charges he faced, just as jury selection was about to begin in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
The indictment in the tax case included racy details of Biden’s life between 2016 and 2019 — the period during which now he admits he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes — including the hundreds of thousands of dollars he spent on escorts, a pornographic website, hotels, luxury car rentals and other lavish personal expenses.
As part of his guilty plea, Biden had acknowledged improperly classifying his personal expenses as business expenses.
Did Hunter Biden face prison time?
In the tax case, Biden faced a maximum of 17 years in federal prison, although he was likely to be sentenced to a few years in prison at most. In the gun case, he faced a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, although as a nonviolent first-time offender, he was likely to face no more than two years behind bars.
In the tax case, U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi was scheduled to sentence him in Los Angeles on Dec. 16. In the handgun case, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika was set to hand down her sentence in Delaware on Dec. 12. Both judges were appointed to the bench by President Trump.
What does the pardon do?
The pardon covers offenses that Hunter Biden “may have committed or taken part in” from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024. It effectively wiped away the two pending criminal cases in which the younger Biden faced years in prison.
However, it also offers immunity for other conduct in that period, when he was active in foreign business dealings, including his seat on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company he joined in 2014 while his father was vice president.
“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 said in his statement. “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.”
Shortly after the pardon was issued, Hunter Biden’s lawyers filed petitions to have both criminal cases dismissed.
How is this a change in the president’s position?
The White House and President Biden himself have long insisted he would not pardon his son.
Shortly before the trial testimony began, President Biden told ABC journalist David Muir that he would accept the jury’s verdict in the Delaware case.
“Have you ruled out a pardon for your son?” Muir asked.
“Yes,” Biden replied.
After the gun verdict, the president said he would continue to “respect the judicial process” while his son considered an appeal.
What has Hunter Biden’s team claimed about the prosecutions?
Hunter Biden has long been the target of ire from right-wing political figures, activists and the media.
In both criminal cases, Hunter Biden and his legal team had sought to paint him as a victim of selective, unfair, and politically motivated prosecution. His lawyers had pointed to a plea deal reached in 2023 that would have spared Hunter any prison time. It unraveled under questioning from a judge in Delaware, and after the deal collapsed, David C. Weiss, the special counsel, secured indictments in both cases.
Hunter Biden filed but later dropped a defamation lawsuit against Fox News over a fictional program that depicted his legal troubles.
Hunter Biden’s lawsuit asserted that Fox News defamed him in a six-part series called “The Trial of Hunter Biden: A Mock Trial for the American People” that was shown on its streaming platform Fox Nation.
