Joe Biden issues 'full and unconditional' pardon to son Hunter

In a sudden reversal of his previous stance of non-interference, outgoing US president Joe Biden has issued "a full and unconditional" pardon to son Hunter Biden covering his son's gun charges, conviction and guilty plea, says The Guardian.

Biden, who had previously said he would not use his executive authority to pardon his son, released the statement through the White House on Sunday(1 Dec).

The pardon comes in advance of Hunter Biden's 12 December sentencing for his conviction on federal gun charges. Hunter Biden also is scheduled to be sentenced in a separate criminal case four days later, after pleading guilty in September on federal tax evasion charges.

In the statement, Joe Biden said he'd reversed a pledge to "not interfere with the Justice Department's decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted".

Hunter Biden was found guilty in Delaware in June on three felony counts relating to his purchase of a handgun in 2018 because he wrote on his gun-purchase form, falsely, that he was not a user of illicit drugs.

Joe Biden said Sunday evening that his son had been prosecuted "without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form".

"It is clear that Hunter was treated differently," Biden said, adding that the charges in the case "came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election".