President Biden bypassed Justice Department in pardoning son Hunter: court records
WASHINGTON – A federal judge in Delaware formally ended the gun case against Hunter Biden on Tuesday after President Joe Biden gave his son an unusually broad pardon without going through customary processing by Justice Department’s pardon office.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika terminated the indictment on three gun charges related to Hunter Biden's purchase of a revolver in 2018 while he was addicted to illegal drugs.
A jury convicted Biden in June and he awaited sentencing Dec. 12. But President Biden gave his son a “full and unconditional” pardon Sunday for any federal crimes he may have committed from 2014 through the end of this year, which legal experts called a "very unusual" clemency.
Biden signed the pardon after huddling with his family in Nantucket, Massachusetts, for the Thanksgiving holiday. The pardon “was not processed via application” through the Justice Department’s pardon office, as is customary, according to an email from the senior deputy pardon attorney who isn’t named in court records.
The pardon office has received, reviewed and investigated clemency applications for more than 130 years. Margaret Love, the U.S. pardon attorney from 1990 to 1997, called Hunter Biden's pardon the most sweeping since former President Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon in 1974.
Others pardoned for unspecified crimes included Vietnam draft dodgers by former President Jimmy Carter and former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, for his role in the Iran-contra affair, by former president George H.W. Bush. In his first term in office, President-elect Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, a former sheriff in Arizona, after he was convicted of contempt of court but before he was sentenced.
Love had questioned whether Biden pardon was made in consultation with the Justice Department, as is standard practice.
“It makes me sad, I think, that the power has just been sort of slowly pried lose from the justice system," Love said. "Not slowly at all, really, quite roughly.”
Noreika’s decision came at the request of Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, who argued a pardon “releases the wrongdoer from punishment and restores the offender’s civil rights without qualification.”
The prosecutor, Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, opposed the request by arguing the grand jury’s decision shouldn’t “be wiped away as if it never occurred.”
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi in Los Angeles faces a similar request to dismiss Hunter Biden's indictment on nine tax charges related to not paying taxes on time for several years, after he pleaded guilty in September.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Justice Department didn't process Hunter Biden pardon: court records