The precedent Biden’s pardon of his son could set for future presidents

Read the Full Transcript

• Geoff Bennett:

  Last night, President Joe Biden issued a full and unconditional pardon of his son Hunter, who was just days away from a possible prison sentence in two federal felony cases against him.

  It's a striking reversal of the president's promise that he would not use his authority to pardon his son or commute his sentence. The president's son, Hunter Biden, receiving the most sweeping presidential pardon in generations, capping years of high-profile legal troubles and political scrutiny.

  He faced possible prison time for his conviction on federal gun charges back in June, as well as for separate tax crimes, for which he pleaded guilty in September. Hunter Biden was scheduled to be sentenced in both cases later this month.

  His pardon goes even further, covering all federal offenses that Hunter Biden — quote — "has committed or may have committed or taken part in over the last decade, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted."

  It's something President Biden has insisted repeatedly he would not do.

  David Muir, "World News Tonight" Anchor And Managing Editor: Have you ruled out a pardon for your son?

  Joe Biden, President of the United States: Yes. I'm not going to do anything. I said I'd abide by the jury decision and I will do that and I will not pardon him.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Now President Biden is calling the prosecution politically motivated.

  In a written statement, the president said his son was "selectively and unfairly prosecuted. 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."

  Today, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended President Biden's decision while speaking to reporters.

• Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary:

  Two things could be true. You can believe in the Department of Justice system and you could also believe that the process was infected politically. And that's what the president says.

• Geoff Bennett:

  It all comes less than two months before President Biden's term ends and president-elect Donald Trump's begins.

  On social media, Mr. Trump slammed the move, calling it an abuse and miscarriage of justice. The pardon cannot be rescinded once he takes office. Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he'd use his second term to investigate and prosecute the Bidens.

  Congressman James Comer, one of several Republicans leading the congressional investigations into the Biden family, wrote on X: "The charges Hunter faced were just the tip of the iceberg. President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability."

  Even some Democrats join the chorus of criticism. Colorado Governor Jared Polis expressed his disappointment in the president for putting his family ahead of the country. And he called the decision a bad precedent that could be abused by later presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation.

  And we are joined now by Margaret Love. She previously served as us pardon attorney under former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

  Thanks for being with us.

• Margaret Love, Former U.S. Pardon Attorney:

  It's a pleasure.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Put the sweeping nature of this pardon in context for us. It not only spares Hunter Biden from doing possible prison time. It also insulates him from ever facing criminal charges for any crimes he possibly could have committed over the past decade.

• Margaret Love:

  Yes, it's a little hard to compare this to anything in the recent past, certainly.

  It's a very, very broad grant. The only thing that I can compare it to is the pardon that President Ford gave President Nixon, which was also a preemptive pardon for a period of five years. In this case, it's a period of 11 years.

  So it's really quite unique, other than the Nixon pardon.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And this pardon is a departure for President Biden, who has vowed not to interfere with the Justice Department's actions and who has mostly avoided weighing in on his son's legal issues.

  There is this question, though, of the intervening events, the reelection of Donald Trump, the prospect of Hunter Biden being at the mercy of a Trump Justice Department, where Donald Trump has explicitly said that he intends to use the criminal justice system to exact revenge, and his nomination of someone, Kash Patel, who has promised to go after the Bidens if he is confirmed as FBI director.

  Does any of that bolster the justification for this pardon?

• Margaret Love:

  Well, obviously, it was very important to President Biden.

  I'm not going to comment on whether it justifies this kind of a grant or not. I mean, I'm more interested in talking about the very unique, almost unique nature of the grant itself, which could be questionable, to tell you the truth. There was a lot of conversation at the time of the Nixon grant. Eminent constitutional scholars debated whether the president had the power, under the constitutional pardon power, to grant preemptive pardons.

  I know there was conversation at the end of the Trump administration about preemptive pardons, and a decision was made, apparently, not to grant them. So I think that the real interest for me here is the nature of that grant.

  And I guess it will, in due course, be found whether it's at appropriate use of the president's power or not.

• Geoff Bennett:

  How does this pardon for Hunter Biden fit into President Biden's overall clemency record?

• Margaret Love:

  Oh, gosh, well, he doesn't have a very lengthy record, to tell you the truth. I have been hoping that he would grant a number of pardons that in many cases have been waiting in the backlog for years.

  And it would be great if he took this opportunity to grant some of those pardons and sentence commutations that have been awaiting his action. He has not had a great deal of interest, apparently, in pardoning to date.

  This may jog things loose. Hope so.

• Geoff Bennett:

  What precedent does a pardon like this set, in your view?

• Margaret Love:

  Well, I mean, it certainly suggests that another president might try it if it's not challenged. It's very interesting because President Trump himself was very adventuresome in his use of the pardon power, intervened in many pending cases, the way no president had done before.

  But what was characteristics of President Trump's pardons were that he always pardoned a very specific offense, specific charges. One exception to that is the Michael Flynn pardon, which got a little bit broader, pardoning anything that the special counsel might bring against him. But that was a more defined jurisdiction than the Hunter Biden pardon or the Nixon pardon, for that matter.

  So you never know what might happen in the future. It's a power that has rarely been tested in the courts, but I expect perhaps that there may be some opportunity to do that going forward.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Margaret Love, thank you for your time this evening.

• Margaret Love:

  You're most welcome. Thank you.