Speaker 6 (00:00):
This is an ABC News special report.
Linsey Davis (00:04):
Good evening everyone. I'm Linsey Davis at ABC News headquarters here in New York. We're coming on the air 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 Muir this summer that he would not pardon his son when he was directly asked and Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday the President had spoken on the issue. ABC's Chief Washington correspondent, Jonathan Karl joins us now on the phone. And John, does this come as a surprise to you?
Jonathan Karl (00:44):
Linsey, frankly, it doesn't come as a surprise to me. I know President Biden, as you said, was emphatic when he told David Muir that he would not pardon his son Hunter. The White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre was asked this many times over the following several months after that interview, and she reiterated that a pardon was off the table. But look, this is the President's son. It comes on the day after that Donald Trump has announced that Kash Patel would be his FBI director, a move that signaled that Donald Trump's administration would be taking seriously the idea of retribution on his political enemies. I don't think that there will be many people, Democrats, Republicans, Americans, that are surprised that Joe Biden decided that his son facing these two separate investigations, two separate trials, two separate convictions, would decide that he would pardon his son at this point.
Linsey Davis (01:58):
And what kind of punishment would Hunter have faced had his dad not pardoned him?
Jonathan Karl (02:06):
He faced the possibility of significant jail time. I mean, these were both serious charges, the tax trial out in California, the gun charges in Delaware, both faced the possibility of sentences and he was facing sentencing later this month. Both could have resulted in jail time. And look, Joe Biden knows his son. Hunter is somebody who is a recovering drug addict. The idea of serving time in prison could well have been a death sentence to him. I know that Joe Biden has said at times that he lost one of his sons. He lost Bo to brain cancer and he has confided to people, "I'll be damned if I'm going to another one." And I think he had real concerns about the possibility that his son could face prison time.
(03:11)
But I think 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 possibly an FBI director, an Attorney General who is totally on board with the idea of going after Donald Trump's political enemies, including… They campaigned. Hunter Biden was a significant part of Trump's campaign, talking about what he would call the Biden crime family. And I think 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.
Linsey Davis (04:03):
John Carl for us. Thanks so much, John. Want to bring in ABC's chief justice correspondent Pierre Thomas now. Pierre, just give us a sense how extraordinary this action is for President Biden to take and how long this potentially was in the works.
Pierre Thomas (04:16):
Well, Linsey, I think the key here is that to piggyback off what you were just talking with John about, look, Hunter Biden faced more than a decade in prison maximum, more than a decade, 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. You recall they had indicted a former President, the primary candidate for President for the Republican Party who has since won. Those cases have been dropped. And this Justice Department made a decision to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate the son of a sitting President.
(04:59)
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 Special Counsel who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. So clearly 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, clearly the President chose to create a scenario where his son would not go to jail. 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, President Biden's 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.
Linsey Davis (05:58):
And to be fair, how unusual is it, the kind of action that we saw against Hunter Biden? 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?
Pierre Thomas (06:17):
Well, let me make the case that the attorneys for Hunter Biden made. The case they made is that on the gun charge, which involved 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 selective 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. 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 an addict, addicted to cocaine, which caused his life to unravel and for him to make a lot of difficult and poor choices. The Special Counsel'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.
Linsey Davis (07:27):
I do want to release a statement or read 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 and the unwavering love and support of my family and friends. In the throes of addiction, I squandered many opportunities and advantages. In recovery, we can be given the opportunity to make amends where possible and rebuild 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."
(08:12)
And now I want to bring in our chief legal analyst, Dan Abrams, who joins us on the phone. Dan, we've been talking with John and Pierre. How unusual do you find this to be?
Dan Abrams (08:25):
Well, look, it's obviously very unusual because it's an incredibly unusual situation. But let's go through some of what you've been talking about. First of all, the comments by Hunter, talking about the fact that he was in the throes of addiction. It's not particularly relevant as a legal matter. Meaning there are a lot of people who are in the throes 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 throes of addiction. Here is 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 to get a weapon.
(09:15)
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, and the person had no criminal record. There's never been 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 criminally. But there are also cases where they do charge them criminally, particularly when they live lavishly, et cetera, like this. So that one I think is a closer call as to whether the case would've been brought in another situation.
(10:15)
And the last point I'll make is that there was another option here for the present and that is to grant clemency, meaning he's granted pardons here. That means these convictions go away. The other 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 all-out pardon, which as you pointed out, is a reversal from what he had told David Muir.
Linsey Davis (10:48):
Dan Abrams for us. Thanks so much. I want to bring that same question to ABC's chief White House correspondent, Mary Bruce and Mary, we know that the 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 this statement now?
Mary Bruce (11:09):
It is pretty remarkable. Not only is President Biden doing something that he repeatedly, including to our own David Muir 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 tipping the scale in any kind of way, interfering in any kind of way in the justice 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.
(11:46)
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 is wrestled with this, he says he believes raw politics has infected this process and it has led to a miscarriage of justice, a remarkable about faith from President Biden.
Linsey Davis (12:09):
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 Linsey Davis in New York. Good day.
Speaker 6 (12:27):
This has been a special report from ABC News.