President Joe Biden issues pardon for son Hunter Biden

this is an ABC News special report good evening everyone I'm Lindsay Davis at ABC News headquarters here in New York we're coming on the air at this hour with breaking news President Biden has just pardoned his son Hunter on gun and tax charges that he was facing the president reversed his previous position he had long said that he would not pardon Hunter expressing faith in the justice system and the rule of law President Biden was emphatic telling our David mure this Summer that he would not pardon his son when he was directly asked and press

secretary Karin Johan Pierre told reporters on Monday that the president had spoken on the issue ABC's Chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Carl joins us now on the phone and John does this come as a surprise to you Lindsay frankly it doesn't come as a surprise to me I know uh President Biden as you said was emphatic when he told David miror that he would not pardon uh his son Hunter uh the White House Press Secretary Karen jeaner was asked this many times over the uh the following several months after that interview and she reiterated there were

you know that that a pardon was off the table but but look um this is uh this is the president's son it comes on you know the day after that Donald Trump was announced that cash Patel would be his FBI director um a a move that signaled that uh that Donald Trump's Administration would be taking seriously the idea of Retribution on his political enemies I I I don't think that there will be many people Democrats Republicans Americans that that are surprised that Joe Biden decided that uh his son facing these these two separate uh investigations

two separate trials two separate convictions um would would decide uh that he would pardon his son at this point and what kind of uh punishment would uh Hunter have faced had his dad not pardoned him uh he he he faced he faced the possibility of of real of significant jail time I mean this these were uh both serious charges the the tax trial out in California the gun charges in Delaware uh both faced the possibility of sentencing and he was facing sentencing later this month uh uh both uh could have resulted in in jail time

and look um Joe knows his son Hunter is is somebody who is a a recovering drug addict the idea of of serving time in prison could well have have been a death sentence to him um this was you know I I I know that Donald that Joe Biden has said at at times that he lost one of his sons he lost bow to to brain cancer and he has confided to people I'll be damned if I'm going to lose another one um and and I think he had real concerns about uh about the possibility that

that his son could face could face prison time um and but but I think that that it's not just that it's not just what he could have faced in this upcoming sentencing it's what would happen once Donald Trump is president of the United States and he has a uh possibly an an FBI director uh a uh uh an attorney general who uh is totally on board with the idea of going after Donald Trump's political enemies uh including you know they they they they campaigned Hunter Biden was a was a significant part of of of Trump's

campaign talking about what he would call the the Biden crime family and and I think that that that Joe Biden at the end of the day was not going to leave his son's fate up to whatever Donald Trump's justice department and his FBI would want to do John Carl for us thanks so much John want to bring in ABC's chief justice correspondent Pier Thomas now Pier just give us a sense how extraordinary this action is for President Biden to take and how long this potentially was in the works well Lindsay I think the key here

is that to piggyback off what you were just talking to John about look hter Biden faced more than a decade in prison maximum more than a decade uh which is significant prison time and the other significant thing here is that this was yet another case of the justice department taking extraordinary action uh you recall they had uh indicted a a former president the primary candidate for president for the Republican Party who since won uh those cases have been dropped and this justice department made a decision uh to appoint a special counsel to investigate the the

son of a sitting president and what struck me most about the president's statement tonight is that he called the prosecution unfair and selective which is a direct shot at his justice department uh special counsel Who was appointed by attorney general Merrick Garland so clearly uh this president had feelings about this prosecution had not chosen to intervene but given the election and what John just mentioned a new Administration coming in uh clearly the president chose to uh create a scenario where his son would not go to jail uh now whether the justice department will continue any

other aspects of investigating Hunter Biden that's unclear but in regard to the tax case in regard to the gun case uh President Biden saying today that his son will be pardoned and will not see any jail time in regards to that but again I was struck by the comment unfair and selective prosecution by his own justice department and to be fair how unusual is it uh the kind of action that we saw against Hunter Biden uh would you agree with what the president is saying about this being unfair or as Donald Trump has used it

when it's applied to himself a Witch Hunt well let let me make the case um that the uh attorneys for Hunter Biden made the case they made is that on the gun charge which involved false paperwork filing false paperwork in order to purchase a gun that those cases are rarely prosecuted absence a significant other major sort of crime I.E a crime of violence that was the case they made and they made the case in terms of the tax charges that Hunter Biden had paid the money back that this was selected prosecution because there were other

remedies that the justice department could have gone to resolve it so again that was the argument of Hunter Biden's attorneys uh he's put out a statement tonight talking about how he's attempted to get his life back together that this was all in his mind based on the fact that he was a an addict addicted to cocaine uh which caused his life to unravel and for him to make a lot of you know difficult and poor choices uh the special council's office made the case that he lived lavishly on decisions that he made not to pay

taxes and that he knew he should have paid the taxes and therefore should be prosecuted and I do want to release a statement that or or say read out a statement that Hunter Biden just issued a little while ago where he said I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport despite all of this I have maintained my sobriety for more than five years because of my deep faith in the unwavering love

and support of my family and friends in the throws of addiction I squandered many opportunities and advantages in recovery we can be given the opportunity to make amends where possible and build our lives if we never take for granted the mercy that we have been afforded I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are sick and suffering and now I want to bring in uh our chief legal uh analyst Dan Abrams who joins us on the phone uh Dan

we've been talking with with John and Pierre how unusual do you find this to be well look it's obviously very unusual because it's an incredibly unusual situ a but but let's go through some of what you've been talking about first of all the comments by Hunter bot talking about the fact that he was in the throws of addiction it's not particularly relevant as a legal matter meaning there are a lot of people who are in the throws of addiction who commit crimes including drug crimes you can argue that in sentencing it can help them but

when it comes to guilt or innocence it's really not a particularly significant argument that he was in the throws of addiction here is what what is significant and this is a question that you asked Pierre about each of the charges and there's a separate answer I think with regard to the gun charge and the tax cases when it comes to the gun charge this is talking about filling out a form uh to get a weapon there has never been another case brought in federal court with this set of facts meaning where there was one gun

the gun was not used in a crime there were no other crimes that the person was charged with in connection with this um and the person had no criminal record there's never been a Char a federal case now that doesn't mean there wasn't a technical crime committed but it means that he's got a very good argument that this case felt like selective prosecution the tax case is a little squishier yes it's true that there are a lot of cases where when it comes to tax violations they let someone pay it back or pay a fine

and they don't charge them Criminal but there are also cases where they do charge them criminally particularly when they live lavishly Etc like this so that one I think is a is a closer call as to whether the case would have been brought in another situation and the last point I'll make is that there was another option here uh for the president and that is to grant clemency meaning he's granted pardons here that means these convictions go away the other op option he could have done is he could have just said convictions stand but I'm

going to determine that there will be no sentence to be served in effect for this he didn't do that he went for an allout pardon which as you pointed out is a reversal from what he had told David Mir Dan Abrams for us thanks so much I want to bring that same question to ABC's chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce Mary we know that that President Biden has stayed silent on this issue for months but when he was asked this specifically before he said he would not do it now he's doing it why do you

think he's making the statement now it is pretty remarkable not only is President Biden doing something that he repeatedly including to our own David Mir said he simply would not do that a pardon for his son was off the table but it strikes me in reading the president's statement here that he is really doing something that we haven't heard from him even which is commenting on these cases he tried very carefully to stay away from that because he didn't want to give any kind of impression that he was you know tipping the scale in any

kind of way interfering in any kind of way in the justice syst system but when you look at the statement that he put out tonight he is making it clear what he really thinks of all of this that this has been simply an effort to go after him politically he says in trying to break Hunter they've tried to break me saying there's no reason to believe it will stop here he says bluntly enough is enough and he says that the truth here he believes is that even though he's wrestled with this he says he believes

raw politics has infested infected this process and it has led to a miscarriage of Justice a remarkable about face from President Biden ABC's Mary Bruce for us thank you so much and just to recap President Biden has just announced that he will pardon his son Hunter on gun and tax charges be sure to stay with ABC news for continuous updates on abcnews.com and much more on Good Morning America in the morning until then I'm lindsy Davis in New York good day this has been a special report from ABC News