US President Joe Biden pardons his son Hunter Biden

US President Joe Biden Photo: AFP / SAUL LOEB

US President Joe Biden says he has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of making false statements on a gun background check and illegally possessing a firearm and pled guilty to federal tax charges.

"Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would 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," he said in a statement released by the White House.

The White House had said repeatedly that Biden would not pardon or commute the sentences of his son, a recovering drug addict who became a target of Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump.

"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," Biden said.

Hunter Biden faced sentencing for the false statements and gun convictions on Wednesday. In September he pled guilty to federal charges of failing to pay US$1.4 million in taxes while spending lavishly on drugs, sex workers and luxury items. He faced sentencing in that case on 16 December.

"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," Hunter Biden said in a statement on Sunday (local time), adding he had remained sober for more than five years.

"In the throes of addiction, I squandered many opportunities and advantages ... 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 still sick and suffering."

The president, whose son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015, said his opponents had sought to break Hunter with selective prosecution.

He said people were almost never brought to trial for felony charges over how they filled out a gun form, and said others who were late in paying taxes because of addiction but paid them back with interest and penalties as his son had typically received "non-criminal resolutions" to their cases.

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

"In trying to break Hunter, they've tried to break me, and there's no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."

Biden said he had made the decision over the weekend. The president, his wife, Jill Biden, and their family including Hunter, spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Nantucket, Massachusetts and returned to Washington on Saturday night.

During a walk around Nantucket shops on Friday afternoon, one supporter shouted at the president from across a street to pardon his son.

"Here's the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice - and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further," Biden said.

"I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."

- Reuters

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