Hunter Biden says Joe Biden chose family over legacy — Joe Biden Hunter Biden Pardon
Hunter Biden said his father’s joe biden hunter biden pardon showed Joe Biden “chose me over his legacy” after granting him a full and unconditional pardon in December 2024. He made the remark in an interview that aired Friday on Gavin Newsom’s podcast, and said the decision came after years of public vows not to interfere in his federal tax and gun cases.
Hunter Biden also said, “That’s how much you know my dad loves me,” adding that his father “wouldn’t give me a pardon” and was “absolutely 100% genuine about it” when he said he would not do so. He said Joe Biden changed his view after Donald Trump was elected to a second term.
Joe Biden pardon December 2024
Joe Biden granted the pardon shortly before the scheduled sentencing in Hunter Biden’s two criminal cases and left office not long after. Hunter Biden said the pardon would not have happened if Trump had not won the 2024 election, because he would have been under the supervision of the Bureau of Federal Prisons and a target for the new administration.
Joe Biden said when he signed the pardon that “raw politics” had already “infected” his son’s criminal cases and “led to a miscarriage of justice.” Jill Biden told’s TODAY that she supported the decision, saying “of course” when asked about it. She also said, “Joe wasn’t thinking about himself. He said all along that he was not going to pardon Hunter, but then the administration changed.”
Hunter Biden cases
The pardon covered cases that had already produced separate outcomes in 2024. A federal jury in Delaware convicted Hunter Biden on gun charges, and he later pleaded guilty to three felony and six misdemeanor tax charges.
Hunter Biden said the investigation into his case began during the first Trump administration. He added that Merrick Garland kept in place the U.S. attorney who had been investigating the case after becoming attorney general during the Biden administration. In his telling, the pardon arrived after those proceedings had already put him on a path toward sentencing.
Joe Biden legacy fight
The pardon became part of how Joe Biden’s presidency may be remembered, and Hunter Biden’s comments made that political cost explicit. The judge in the California case said the then-president was trying to “rewrite history,” a criticism that sits alongside Joe Biden’s own claim that the cases had been shaped by “raw politics.”
Hunter Biden said, “It would have been like having a gun to my family’s head for the next four years at least, so that’s why he pardoned me. It’s a really incredibly rational decision and a really difficult decision.” For readers tracking the fallout, the pardon closed the criminal exposure tied to those federal cases, but the dispute over why it happened now has become part of the record attached to Joe Biden’s final months in office.
