A federal judge in California agreed to end a tax case against Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, once the court receives the formal pardon but questioned the president’s claim that his son was unfairly treated.
Scarsi also criticized Hunter Biden for alerting the justice system to the president’s pardon by sending a link to a statement.
“Rather than providing a true and correct copy of the pardon with the notice, Mr. Biden provided a hyperlink to a White House press release presenting a statement by the President regarding the pardon and the purported text of the pardon.”
Some of the representations within Joe Biden’s statement “stand in tension with the case record,” the judge wrote in his order.
Two federal judges expressly rejected Joe Biden’s claim that the government unfairly prosecuted Hunter Biden because of his familial relation to the president, and the president’s attorney general and Department of Justice personnel oversaw the investigation leading to the charges, the judge noted.
“In the President’s estimation, this legion of federal civil servants, the undersigned included, are unreasonable people,” Scarsi wrote of Joe Biden’s statement.
The judge also said there were questions regarding whether Joe Biden exceeded his presidential pardon power, noting that he granted his son clemency for his alleged offenses against the United States during the period from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024.
Because the period of pardoned conduct extends through the date of execution, the clemency “may be read to apply prospectively to conduct that had not yet occurred at the time of its execution, exceeding the scope of the pardon power,” the judge wrote.
“In short, a press release is not a pardon,” Scarsi said. “The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.”
The judge said the case would be terminated when the pardon is received and vacated sentencing in the meantime.
Biden Defends Pardoning Hunter
Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in September to all nine federal tax charges stemming from his failure to pay $1.4 million in taxes for three years between 2016 and 2019 during a time when he was addicted to drugs.His guilty plea came after a previously negotiated plea deal fell apart.
Separately, he was convicted by a jury in June of lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun in Delaware. He illegally possessed the gun for 11 days.
He was facing up to 25 years in prison for the three counts and was scheduled to be sentenced in Delaware on Dec. 4.
Joe Biden previously ruled out a pardon for his son.
In granting clemency, the president said that in cases in which there are no aggravating factors, 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,” wrote Joe Biden, who is set to leave office on Jan. 20, 2025.
“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
He concluded that he hopes that Americans will “understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
