LET’S GET A legality out of the way.

Although it’s an extremely remote possibility, Hunter Biden could technically have been jailed for a lengthy period.

Despite protestations to the contrary by the special prosecutor in the case, it’s hard to dispute this assessment of his convictions pointing out how unusual it all was, which appears in President Joe Biden’s statement announcing that he was granting his offspring a reprieve: 

“Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions.”

A persuasive case can be made that Hunter Biden may well have been treated more benevolently by the system if his surname were Jones. Equally, it is beyond doubt that he engaged for many years in abhorrent behaviour that was simultaneously self-destructive and hurtful to his family at multiple levels. It is reported that Hunter has been clean and sober for some time now. All of us who understand that none of us is perfect hope and pray sincerely that he has turned the corner, permanently.

That said, he is a Biden and it’s nowhere close to that simple. President-elect Donald Trump reacted swiftly on his Truth Social platform.

“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 [January 6th] Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” he wrote. 

The Republican chair of the oversight committee in the United States House of Representatives, James Comer, was even more incendiary in his riposte to the news: “The charges Hunter faced were just the tip of the iceberg in the blatant corruption that President Biden and the Biden Crime Family have lied about to the American people.”

On the latter comment, it is notable that myriad accusations have been made against the younger Biden with respect to his profitable dealings in Ukraine, where he was on the payroll of a large gas company when his dad was Barack Obama’s vice president. While they reflect awful judgment on his part and perhaps wilful ignorance on his father’s, investigations to date have unearthed no proof to substantiate the pretty wild insinuations of a criminal enterprise.

The broken system of presidential pardons 

Nevertheless, it has become abundantly clear that the incoming president, together with a cadre of unwaveringly loyal sycophants preparing to occupy key posts, plan to employ the assorted tools at their disposal to pursue in the courts and to generally make the lives miserable of those who, the bombastic billionaire is convinced, attempted to take him down. Trump’s vengeance will not be restrained.

Notwithstanding the reality that Hunter Biden’s fate on the gun possession and tax evasion convictions would have been determined by judges prior to the new administration’s assuming control, could have found himself in the firing line for his activities in Ukraine, et al. Accordingly, a broad pardon, dating from January 2014 to the present, was issued.

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Prominent Democrats, too, are critical of President Biden’s sudden flip flop. Mere weeks ago, this was still firmly off the table. US Congressman Greg Stanton opined that “I think he got this one wrong. This wasn’t a politically motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”

Colorado Governor Jared Polis proffered that, “I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country. This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation.”

There is an ethical, non-political point here. Scholars concur that this constitutional power vested in the commander-in-chief should be reserved for genuine miscarriages of justice or similarly exceptional circumstances. Yet it has been utilised on plenty of occasions by both Republicans and Democrats to exonerate allies and relations. This “perk of the job” has undeniably been exploited. That is deeply unfortunate in that it perpetuates the sentiment that there is one rule for the well-connected and one rule for everyone else.

Reverting to the realpolitik of the situation, this is the last thing Democrats needed as they gear up to do battle with an emboldened Donald Trump. He will resolutely push a disruptive agenda, will seek to exact retribution from his foes and may stretch the authority conferred by his office to the limits.

‘I can neither say he was wrong nor condemn him as a father’

As he goes about doing so, this pardon will be cited repeatedly by Trump’s acolytes when his opponents cry foul. It will provide him some, not total, political cover. Naturally, partisans will be partisans; their posturing is predictable. Problematically for the Democrats, however, Biden’s deed will reaffirm what is already a mantra for tens of millions who are fairly apolitical and/or somewhere in the middle of the ideological spectrum: “They’re all the same.”

There are two final questions at the heart of this matter. First, was Joe Biden wrong? I believe he was wrong as the President of the US. It is another big blow to his place in the history books. Honestly though, I can neither say he was wrong nor condemn him as a father.

Second, what was behind this rather unexpected move? Yes, I think he gave Hunter a break, primarily, because he is his son. The elderly man is eternally devoted to him and his future was imperilled. But I also suspect that President Biden, profoundly embittered after he was deposed as the nominee of the party he has served so faithfully for so long, didn’t agonise unduly over the potential adverse consequences for his colleagues.

His grá for Hunter is unconditional. The proud Irish-American has certainly lost some of that loving feeling he once had for the leading Democrats whose machinations led to his ignominious exit from public life. And that must have made the decision a lot easier. Tough old business, politics.

Larry Donnelly is a Boston lawyer, a law lecturer at the University of Galway and a political columnist with The Journal