James Lynch writes for National Review Online about the latest dubious partisan claim from a former president’s wayward son.
Hunter Biden is blaming President Trump for his father’s decision to grant him one of the most sweeping pardons in American history.
Hunter Biden finally addressed the pardon in an interview with journalist Tommy Christopher and claimed Trump’s victory in November 2024 inspired his father, then–President Joe Biden, to pardon him the following month.
“Donald Trump went and changed everything,” Hunter Biden said. “And I don’t think that I need to make much of an argument about why it changed everything.”
If Trump had not won the election, Hunter Biden does not believe his father would have pardoned him. Instead, Hunter thinks he would have won in the appeals process.
“My dad would not have pardoned me if President Trump had not won, and the reason that he would not have pardoned me is because I was certain that in a normal circumstance of the appeals [I would have won],” the younger Biden argued.
Hunter Biden also suggested he would have been an easy target for Trump to get revenge against his father if he were not pardoned. In addition to Hunter, Joe Biden pardoned several other members of his family right before leaving office.
Before the pardon, Hunter Biden was set to be sentenced on federal tax charges in California and gun charges in Delaware. He pleaded guilty to the tax charges after being convicted on the gun charges at the conclusion of a high-profile trial.
Joe Biden’s sweeping pardon spared Hunter the legal consequences of all criminal activity he may have committed from January 2014 to December 2024, which covered the entire period of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and sordid misadventures during a time of drug addiction.
