US President Joe Biden on Sunday issued an official pardon for his son Hunter, who was facing sentencing for two criminal cases, despite assurances that he would not intervene in his legal troubles.
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” the president said in a statement.
Hunter Biden was convicted earlier this year of lying about his drug use when he bought a gun — a felony — and has also pleaded guilty in a separate tax evasion trial, but had not faced sentencing.
Joe Biden, who is in the final weeks of his presidency before Trump takes office on January 20, had repeatedly said he wouldn’t pardon his son.
“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,” President Biden said in Sunday’s statement.
“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” he added.
Here are 18 key things to know about Hunter
1. Robert Hunter Biden was born on February 4, 1970.
2. He is the second son of U.S. President Joe Biden and his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden.
3. He is an American attorney and businessman.
4. After graduating from law school in 1996, Biden accepted a consultant position at the bank holding company MBNA, whose employees donated more than $200,000 to his father’s senate campaigns over the years.
5. Biden was a founding board member of BHR Partners, a Chinese investment company, in 2013, and later served on the board of Burisma Holdings, one of the largest private natural gas producers in Ukraine, from 2014 until his term expired in April 2019.
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6. He has worked as a lobbyist and legal representative for lobbying firms, a hedge fund principal, and a venture capital and private equity fund investor.
7. In 2006, Biden and his uncle James Biden purchased international hedge fund Paradigm Global Advisors with an $8 million promissory note.
8. The joint promotion of the fund by an entity of the troubled Stanford Financial Group hastened the unwinding of the company in 2010.
9. Biden was convicted of three federal firearms-related felony charges in June 2024 after he had admitted to illegally owning a gun while a drug user.
10. Biden’s tax affairs have been under federal criminal investigation since late 2018, and in September 2024, Biden pled guilty to all of the tax charges.
11. In December 2020, Biden made a public announcement via his attorney that his tax affairs were under federal criminal investigation.
12. A July 2022 report from CNN authenticated emails which showed that Biden was struggling with large debt and overdue tax bills.
13. On June 20, 2023, in a deal with prosecutors, Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges of failure to pay income tax, and to enter a pretrial diversion program related to a felony gun charge of unlawful possession of a firearm.
14. In court on July 26, 2023, federal prosecutors explained that the “ongoing” aspect of the investigation referred to possible charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA); FARA requires that anyone who acts on the behalf of a foreign government, e.g. China or Ukraine, must register with the Department of Justice and file regular reports on their activities for that government.
15. On December 7, 2023, Biden was indicted in California on nine tax charges, including three felony and six misdemeanor offenses.
16. In August 2024, prosecutors alleged that Biden agreed to lobby on behalf of a Romanian businessman seeking to “influence U.S. government agencies” while his father was vice president.
17. On September 5, 2024, Biden’s defense lawyer Abbe Lowell revealed that Biden would change his plea from not guilty to guilty in the federal tax case.
18. On December 1, 2024, Joe Biden issued a “full and unconditional” pardon for his son.
