Power of pardon: On U.S. presidential pardons

Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden has signed a presidential pardon for his son Hunter, for any federal crimes that he “committed or may have committed or taken part in” between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024. The younger Biden was convicted earlier this year on federal gun and drug charges and pleaded guilty to tax charges in California. Addressing the cases against his son, Mr. Biden said that unless there were aggravating circumstances, “people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form”. He also noted regarding the tax evasion allegations that late payment of taxes owing to “serious addictions”, with subsequent full payment of all taxes, interest, and penalties were typically given non-criminal resolutions, yet it was “clear that Hunter was treated differently”. On the one hand, there have been legitimate questions raised about the nature of the pardon — “full and unconditional” — that goes well beyond the gun and tax charges. Most likely, the vagueness of the language is deliberate to allow Hunter Biden to evade prosecutions that the incoming Trump administration might seek to foist upon him, possibly relating to charges of unlawful lobbying, corruption-related payments and similar crimes linked to his foreign business activities. Indeed, Donald Trump has already been impeached in Congress for attempting to pressure, for the sake of political gain, the Ukraine President into conducting investigations against Hunter Biden.

On the other hand, U.S. presidential pardons are hardly uncommon, with even Mr. Trump handing out 143 during his first term — including to Republican Party lobbyist Steve Bannon, the father of Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Charles Kushner, and controversial figures such as Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and former George W. Bush aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Presidential pardons to family members are not unprecedented either — Bill Clinton pardoning his half-brother Roger, convicted on drug-related charges. Yet, the larger question that Mr. Biden’s latest pardon begs is whether justice can be served fairly in a political ecosystem of bitter polarisation, the kind that is presently found in the U.S. When Mr. Biden said that he believed that “raw politics has infected this process” it was a reflection upon the increasing weaponisation of law enforcement authority to score political points — ironically, a charge that Mr. Trump levels against the Department of Justice under Mr. Biden. While there is no reason to assume that Presidents will not continue to issue pardons to their allies, leaders on both sides of the aisle would do well to show restraint and prevent political interference from corrupting the working of the justice system.