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It seems unsurprising as realpolitik: he's a lame duck, the election is over, and the corporate news media is currently focused on disasturbating over everything Trump is even thinking about doing. What's anyone going to do about it--impeach him? He was a pretty bad president, he may as well take the opportunity to do one last thing for his son (and also maybe cover his own ass a bit, by making the pardon broad enough to ensure the Justice Department can't use Hunter's Ukraine dealings to get to his dad).
Where are all our "no one is above the law, not even the President['s son]" American news reporters? Presumably explaining that a pardon is a part of the law and so there is nothing to see here! Which they will of course immediately forget should Trump deliver on some riot-related pardons of his own. (In fact I already see many social media comments to the effect of "criticizing this makes Republicans the real hypocrites, actually.")
(See, if it were me somehow in Biden's exact shoes, I would pardon Hunter and the Capitol rioters in the same batch, just to screw with everyone. It would also have been funny to pardon Trump at the same time, if only because I suspect Trump would be inclined to turn it down. Of course, my own mischievous nature is likely sufficient to prevent me from ever holding elected office, much less one capable of extending pardons.)
I would be surprised if anyone cynical enough to regularly post here will be surprised by the pardon, but it really does clear the rhetorical decks for Trump to hand out a whole mess of pardons, should he feel so inclined. "Accuse your enemy of what you are doing" apparently equates, in the Biden administration, to "do what you plan to later accuse your enemy of doing."
Trump isn't the enemy to Joe Biden, not any more. Trump is fargroup; the part of the Democratic party that ousted him is outgroup and his enemy. Not that this pardon is about them, it's about protecting Hunter, and I join the multitudes who say "well, of course".
This pardon is about protecting the Biden family because Hunter is dead-to-rights on a variety of crimes he recorded himself committing and even provided commentary in text messages to other family members, who also committed those crimes or helped him commit the crimes.
By pardoning Hunter Biden for the entirety of the active years of the "fake, Russian intel operation" laptop, Joe Biden is stopping a liability from being used to incriminate the entire crime family. He protects Hunter from ever suffering the negative effects of him being a wanton criminal, drug addict, and general piece of shit, and also prevents Hunter being used against the family. I seriously doubt this will be the last pardon w/re the Biden family or any of its confidants.
edit: although a counter argument would be the sheer breadth and long time period of the pardon removes Hunter's protection under the 5th Amendment and he would therefore still be subject to subpoena and investigation into these various ties. This is why I believe there will be more pardons coming down the pipe.
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It's also probably not the worst pardon in history. I was under the impression domestic terrorists had previously been pardoned. Bill Clinton pardoned Linda Evans and Susan Rosenberg from the Weather Underground and granted clemency to 16 members of the FALN terrorist organization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton_pardon_controversy).
I think commuting the sentence of someone who has already spent 19 years in jail is a very different thing to a pre-conviction pardon that ensures someone escapes justice.
Commuting a deserved life sentence to 19 years is a violation of the rule of law, but then any pardon except of someone who appears to be factually innocent is a violation of the rule of law. But I don't see how it can be egregiously bad compared to the standard issue lame-duck cash-for-pardons job.
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I'm sure there are some Hanania-cels in shambles
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Fantastic word, never come across it before.
Love it, I would be entirely on board with this, though I'd note that as a Brit, I find the concept of Presidential pardons to be pretty odd, and in tension with the idea of legal equality of all citizens.
Does the crown have the authority to pardon, or perhaps parliament itself?
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OP's post lead me on a minor rabbit hole about government pardons. Apparently we do have them in the UK, although they are rarely used. The last couple were Alan Turing (posthumously) and Steven (nominative determinism) Gallant, a convicted murderer who, while on day-release, fought against the jihadi who carried out the London Bridge attack in 2019.
Although if I'm honest, pardoning a relative totally feels like something Boris Johnson would have done.
How have I never heard this story before? This is incredible. What a redemption arc.
I was curious about the case, so I decided to look it up. As I suspected, it turns out that the original murder was a case of vigilantism against, allegedly, a habitual abuser of women. When it was put in the public spotlight, many years later, by the London Bridge attack, apparently much of the public felt that, lawful or unlawful, he'd done the right thing in the first place. The whole story felt very British.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-66945566
Quite a story! Convicted murderer Gallant was out of prison on license for the first time, when the attack occurred and he battled down the terrorist. Talk about having a really unlucky and lucky day!
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