Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden on the fourth day of his trial on criminal gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 6, 2024. On Tuesday, a federal judge terminated the case. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
Dec. 4 (UPI) — Days after President Joe Biden issued his son a sweeping and controversial pardon, two federal cases against Hunter Biden have all been but dismissed.
The younger Biden was facing years in prison when he was to be sentenced later this month on a firearms conviction and a guilty plea for tax-related offenses. However, the judges overseeing those separate cases moved to end their litigation on Tuesday in light of the president’s pardon.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika of Delaware, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, terminated Hunter Biden’s gun case in an oral order on Tuesday.
He could have faced up to 25 years in prison after being found guilty in June on three charges related to his ownership of a handgun in 2018 when he was addicted to drugs. He was to be sentenced on Dec. 12.
District Judge Mark Scarsi of California, who is also a Trump appointee, issued an order Tuesday night indicating his intent to terminate Hunter Biden’s tax offenses case once the court receives the proper pardon documentation.
The younger Biden was scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 16 and faced up to up to 17 years in prison after pleading guilty in September to three felony and six misdemeanor tax offenses.
The rulings were made two days after President Joe Biden issued his son a sweeping pardon, a stunning reversal as he and his administration had said as recently as last month, following Trump’s re-election, that he would not do so.
In his pardon, the president stated the younger Biden had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.”
He criticized how Hunter Biden was prosecuted on felony gun offenses when others similarly charged “are almost never brought to trial.”
He also noted that those who pay interest and penalties on taxes offenses caused by those battling “serious addiction” are “typically given non-criminal resolutions.”
“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,” President Joe Biden said in a statement announcing his pardon.
In his order Tuesday, Scarsi criticized the president over his characterization of the proceedings, pointing out that it was his own attorney general and Justice Department who oversaw the investigations.
“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,” he said.
