From a presidential pardon to the justification of the worst

Photo: Mandel Ngan Agence France-Presse On Monday, the White House spokeswoman defended Joe Biden's decision by referring to the incoming Trump administration and the Republican camp's months-long harassment of Hunter Biden — which she said was not going to end.

Fabien Deglise

Posted at 16:09 Analysis

• United States

It was Jean de La Fontaine who wrote it in 1678 in The Animals Sick with the Plague: “Depending on whether you are powerful or miserable, the judgments of the court will make you white or black.”

On Sunday evening, American President Joe Biden chose his color and brought the fable into reality by granting a presidential pardon to his son Hunter, who was twice convicted during his presidency, for having tried to hide his drug addiction when buying a firearm and for tax evasion.

A surprising turnaround for the Democrat, who has nevertheless promised on several occasions never to interfere in legal cases targeting his offspring, including last June, during the G7 summit in Italy. A jury had just found his son guilty. “I am extremely proud [of him]. I will not do anything. I said that I would respect the jury’s decision and I will not pardon him,” Joe Biden had said at the time.

These were just words… And the decision, while it now shakes the American political world, all political colours united, also risks undermining the credibility of the outgoing president a few weeks before his departure from the White House. It also contributes to maintaining cynicism toward the political class, while eroding confidence in a judicial system already weakened by the numerous appointments of his successor, Donald Trump, who has been promising for months to turn this justice system against his political opponents.

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“As a father, I completely understand President Joe Biden’s natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, but I am saddened to see that he has put his family before his country,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, wrote on the social network X. “This sets a bad precedent that could be misused by future presidents and will unfortunately tarnish his reputation.”

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“This only increases people’s cynicism about politics,” former Illinois Republican Rep. Joe Walsh, a Trump critic who supported Harris during the presidential election, told MSNBC. “This is a selfish move by Joe Biden that only strengthens Trump politically,” he added, speaking of the possibility that the populist might use the judicial system for personal gain in the future, saying that others have done so before him.

The president-elect was quick to make himself heard about Joe Biden's use of this executive clemency to free one of his family members from the weight of a conviction.

On his social network, the billionaire spoke of an “abuse”, a “miscarriage of justice”, while seeking in this decision to justify a gesture that he promised to make in the first days of his new presidency. “Does Joe's pardon of Hunter include the hostages of [January 6, 2021] who have now been imprisoned for years ?” he asked, evoking, with his usual victim-based vocabulary, the rioters sold to his challenge to the 2020 election who were thrown in prison after taking part in the attack on the Capitol and whom the populist should pardon upon returning to Washington.

On Monday morning, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre defended Joe Biden's decision by referring to the upcoming Trump 2.0 administration and the Republican camp's relentless pursuit of Hunter Biden for months — which she said was not going to end. “One of the reasons the president granted a pardon is that it did not appear that his political opponents would move on,” she said, as quoted by the New York Times.

This presidential pardon specifically covers all offenses that Hunter Biden “committed or may have committed or participated in during the period from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024,” the president’s statement released Sunday said.

Cynicism and Democracy

By protecting his son in this way, Joe Biden is nevertheless giving fuel to the fire of critics of the American judicial system, such as Donald Trump, who has been hammering home for years that he is the victim of its politicization. An accusation paradoxically taken up by the Democratic president, who speaks of “a miscarriage of justice” of which his son was the victim, induced by a process “infected” by “raw politics,” he wrote.

Eric Holder, attorney general under Barack Obama, agrees, having stated on the X network that “no [American prosecutor] would have brought charges in this case” if the accused had not been the president’s son. “The facts […] have only demonstrated it: if his name had been Joe Smith, the decision would have been, quite rightly, to dismiss [the charges]. The pardon was therefore justified,” he wrote.

While accusing Donald Trump for months of seeking to attack the foundations of American democracy, the separation of powers and the rule of law, the decision that Joe Biden has just taken risks making it difficult for the Democratic camp to defend this same democracy, once the populist is firmly in place in the White House, on January 20.

And the signals sent by the next occupant of the Oval Office continue to be worrying. The latest ? The announcement made on Saturday to appoint MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement loyalist Kash Patel to head the FBI. Promoter and slayer of the “deep state” — this occult body that pulls the strings of power and manipulates the lives of citizens, according to conspiracy theories — Mr. Patel promised to “go after” the enemies of the president-elect once in office. A logic of retaliation that a simple “pardon” has just amplified.

“This pardon is simply discouraging for those who have been denouncing the Trump threat for several years,” added Joe Walsh. “No one is above the law, we cry! Well, Joe Biden has just clearly shown that his son Hunter is above the law.”