WASHINGTON — Mercy for me, but not for thee.
Former first son Hunter Biden trashed President Trump’s use of the clemency power while acknowledging the hypocrisy of him doing so after his father Joe gave him an “unconditional” pardon shortly before leaving office.
“I’m completely biased as it relates to what my dad did for me. I fully understand how uniquely situated I am in being privileged enough to have received a pardon from my father,” the Biden scion said when asked by MeidasTouch if the pardon power needs reform.
“I don’t think that the founders ever imagined Donald Trump. I don’t think they ever imagined the Trump family,” he went on.
Hunter, 56, didn’t specify what types of changes he’d like to see.
Infamously, former President Joe Biden gave his lone surviving son a “full and unconditional pardon” for all crimes he may have committed between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024.
Both the 46th president and White House officials had insisted dozens of times that Joe Biden would not pardon his troubled son. However, when the time came, Biden argued that his son was being “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.”
A jury found Hunter Biden guilty in June 2024 of illegal possession of a firearm while addicted to illegal drugs. Three months later, Hunter pleaded guilty to bilking Uncle Sam out of $1.4 million in taxes.
The pardon had drawn widespread criticism, including from top Democrats in Congress who warned that it would embolden Trump to unleash his clemency power after taking office.
“I think my dad gave 80 or so pardons over a four-year period of time,” Hunter said. “Donald Trump has given over 1,500 pardons in the first year alone. But I’m obviously—I’m not the one to be, I don’t think, fairly or unbiasedly talking about the presidential pardon power.”
By the conclusion of his presidency, Biden, now 83, had dished out more acts of clemency than any of his predecessors, issuing 4,165 commutations and 80 pardons.
The bulk of the pardons Trump has handed out during his second term stems from the mass clemency he granted to some 1,600 Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters.
Outside of that grant, Trump has issued 120 pardons and commutations.
