WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, on Sunday night, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family.
The Democratic president had previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence after convictions in the two cases in Delaware and California. The move comes weeks before Hunter Biden was set to receive his punishment after his trial conviction in the gun case and guilty plea on tax charges, and less than two months before President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House.
Biden, who time and again pledged to Americans that he would restore norms and respect for the rule of law after Trump’s first term in office, ultimately used his position to help his son, breaking his public pledge to Americans that he would do no such thing.
The Constitution is set up so that a single representative civilian citizen is elected by all the other citizens to oversee the nation. That person occupies the Executive Office.
Constitutionally speaking, the representative of the people decided that the Justice System was being used punitively. The Constitution grants the Executive Office the power of pardons explicitly in case the Justice System is being used punitively.
This isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.