Biden's possible workaround to no pardon pledge for son Hunter
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Joe Biden vowed not to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, following his recent conviction in a felony gun trial, but the president still technically maintains another clemency avenue to help his only surviving son avoid jail time.
Since 2021, Joe Biden has utilized his presidential clemency powers 154 times, split into 24 pardons and 130 commutations. While a pardon would wipe away all or some consequences of a felony conviction, a commutation results in a reduced sentence.
Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2018, has yet to set a sentencing date following Hunter Biden's June conviction. He is facing up to 25 years in prison but is expected to face a significantly shorter sentence as he is a first-time offender.
Joe Biden said in a statement Tuesday that he would "accept" the outcome of the trial and emphasized his past promise not to pardon his son. Yet, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dodged a number of questions about the president's specific language Wednesday and whether a commutation might still be "on the table" for the president's son.
"I have not spoken to the president about this, and what I'm saying is he was asked about a pardon. He was asked about the trial specifically, and he answered it very clearly," she said in one exchange. "I don't have anything beyond what the president said."
Multiple veteran Democratic operatives familiar with the Biden team's thinking told the Washington Examiner that Jean-Pierre's answer was more about "not getting ahead" of the president or Hunter Biden's own sentencing than it was about any specific responses to said sentence.
"President Biden and this White House respect the rule of law, and there's a process that needs to play out here," one strategist explained. "The press wants to take Karine's words and turn that into a new story when in reality, the president and his team don't want to influence the judge's sentencing."
"This is something that we've seen on multiple occasions from the Biden White House over the years: Simple caution when dealing with reporters. I'd expect Karine to know that this is a personal matter for President Biden and something he'd want to clarify on his own," a second strategist explained.
Two other Democratic operatives predicted that Joe Biden himself would clarify that his vow not to pardon Hunter Biden includes not commuting his sentence once he returns from Italy. One of those people indicated that the president is currently focused on maintaining coordination with other G7 leaders regarding the war in Ukraine.
Biden will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Thursday and the pair will hold a joint press conference immediately following their discussion.
"We all know that President Biden cares deeply for his son and that this process has weighed heavily on the family, but let's be honest here for a second. It's extremely unlikely that Hunter Biden's sentence will involve any serious jail time, and there's no way the president would risk influencing voters ahead of November just to help his son get out of a little bit of trouble," one strategist predicted. "Hunter is an adult. He's battled through his demons, but the problems he faces now are of his own doing and far outweigh the danger the country faces if Trump wins in November. The whole Biden family recognizes that fact."
Jordan Rubin, a legal expert and writer of NBC News's Deadline: Legal Blog, similarly wrote that Joe Biden's vow not to pardon his son was likely a blanket statement referring to all clemency actions.
"The notion that the president's preemptive stance on a pardon was seemingly rooted in not wanting to appear as if he would give preferential treatment. Of course, vowing not to pardon a certain defendant ahead of time is actually giving the president's son worse-than-average treatment because it involves prejudging his eligibility before he has served any time or, obviously, submitted a clemency application," Rubin claimed. "That aside, if the president's reasoning behind ruling out a pardon is of the no-one-is-above-the-law variety, then taking any action in his son's favor could cut against that.
However, Rubin did say that the president could issue a commutation for his son if Judge Noreika gives him a "truly draconian" sentence that goes beyond the typical sentencing guidelines.
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That popping sound is right wing heads exploding.
The hissing you hear is the air being let out of left wing heads because there are no right wing heads exploding.
Why would right wing heads explode because they were right? Every right winger knew this would happen after the election.
Shouldn't the people here who publicly trusted Biden to keep his word be mad?
Does anyone here, left or right, believe that the former POTUS would have allowed either of his sons be prosecuted? Yet the right is upset if Biden moves even a fraction towards Trump's position.
Wouldn't that mean he's fascist?...
Are you?
Looong wayyy to go to reach that point.
No. Are you?....
No. So now that we have established that neither of us is fascist, I think that we can admit that neither is Biden.
Hunter is not only a Criminal but a Scumbag in general!
Given what we've seen from the Biden administration, it's not as far as you are willing to admit.
But still a lot longer that you would acknowledge even without partisan glasses on.
It's not as far as you are willing to admit.
Why worry about fiction?
Fiction? How many of his friends and associates did he pardon?
Moving goal posts I see.
Nope, asked a very simple question. Care to provide an answer? (I really really doubt you will)
The original topic we were discussing is BIDEN. You moved goal posts to TRUMP. Have fun with that.
Ya wanna show some links in support of that claim???
Right, so once again too afraid to answer my question. I'll add it to my list.
Presidents can do anything they want.
Sure....
So according to you, Nixon, Clinton and Trump have each done nothing wrong because they could have done anything they wanted to.
Trump is the one that said presidents can do anything they want, the others have not.
#3
Yes, trump said that.... Not sure what you are confused about.
He must think you're Clinton since you have also said it. Although you were simply repeating it.
Irrelevant since I said you said and never mentioned that Trump or anything of the others said that.
I love ya Arky but I am missing your point.
And there is no doubt about who is going to prove it.
So with that being said, we won't hear anything from you when the next administration gets to work.
At this point, why worry about it? By way of comparison, Trump may well end up pardoning himself. Apparently, that’s just fine with Republicans? Millions of people voted for him, which is sort of like a grass roots bottom-up pardon.
He’s also busy appointing as many fellow felons as he can to government positions. And it’s not like we’re talking about super qualified people who happen to be felons. They’re all just people who are super loyal to him or related to him via marriage. Most of them are more interested in destroying the departments they would be running than improving them.
I’ve never cared about Hunter Biden, and I still don’t. But here, it’s not like Biden is planning to make Hunter Secretary of State or something. He’d just be cutting his own kid a break by keeping him out of prison. As nepotism goes, it’s a relatively mild example - especially considering the glaring alternative. Would I respect Biden for staying out of it? Sure. But as a father myself, I wouldn’t fault him for it, either.
"But Trump" isn't a counter argument. It's a devastating admission.
Look at it this way, Hunter wasn’t convicted of a violent crime like murder. Did you protest when the prior president who shall be named Trump pardoned four convicted murderers of civilians in Iraq.
Neither is a straw man. My comment, which was not an argument, so much as an analysis and opinion, was a lot longer and more complex than “but Trump.” If you want to be treated with any respect in discussions, do better.
Whatever...
What a sad attempt. Do better.
Why even seed if you’re only going to troll the people who comment?
You’re consistent.
In true Democrat fashion, a crackhead with a gun is let out of prison. Nothing new. Nothing we didn't expect.
He’s not pardoning his son… because he’s living what it means to have a rule of law... If you want to know if he believes it, you can see what’s happening with his own son
Andrew Weissmann, author of the Mueller report.
LMAO.