Providing clemency before the term ends: The story of President Biden and the prosecution of Karl Kushner for killing his brother-in-law

“President Biden has until January 20 to provide clemency for thousands of individuals who are appropriate clemency candidates who are sitting in federal prison right now,” Eisen says. “So there’s a lot of time.”

The topic of presidential pardons is back in the spotlight this week after President Biden announced he signed a “full and unconditional” one for his son.

Last month, more than 60 members of Congress wrote Biden a letter asking him to use his authority to “help broad classes of people and cases, including the elderly and chronically ill, those on death row, people with unjustified sentencing disparities, and women who were punished for defending themselves against their abusers.”

The Brennan Center, which claims to be nonpartisan, is among the groups urging the president to commute death sentences to life without parole.

Even so, Eisen says there is much more Biden could do before his term ends — including addressing the more than 8,000 petitions for clemency pending before his administration.

According to data from the Justice Department, Biden has pardoned 25 people and commuted over 120 sentences since he took office. He has granted clemency to many more, including entire groups.

Trump pardoned him in 2020 due to his philanthropic record, despite the fact that he had served two years in prison. Trump is going to appoint Charles Kushner to be the ambassador to France.

Charles Kushner, himself a real estate billionaire, pleaded guilty in 2004 to filing false tax returns, lying to the Federal Election Commission and retaliating against a witness: his own brother-in-law.

He had previously pardoned many other members of his inner circle who had been charged with various crimes, including Republican operative Roger Stone, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner — the father of his senior advisor, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

He came in for much more flack for pardoning a person who had fled to Switzerland to avoid being indicted for evading more than $48 million in taxes. Rich’s ex- wife had given $1 million to Clinton’s presidential library and Democrats and raised questions about the pardon, which ultimately found no wrongdoing by Clinton.

On his last day in office in 2001, President Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother, Roger, who had pleaded guilty and spent a year in jail on drug charges.

Presidential pardons have been commonplace since the days of George Washington, who forgave the two men convicted of treason for their role in the Whiskey Rebellion. Over the years, many have been cause for celebration as well as controversy.

Andrew Johnson pardoned a doctor who treated Booth after he was wounded in the assassination of Lincoln, as well as thousands of Confederate soldiers and officials, after the Civil War.

According to the constitution, a president can only grant pardons for federal criminal offenses, but cannot give pardons in cases of impeachment.

“Clemency really is an expression of mercy, and often tempers the very overly punitive, harsh, inequitable results that our criminal justice system produces,” says Eisen.

Biden’s pardon of Hunter isn’t as bad a use of the power as previous presidents have. Even though it fell within the ambit of legitimate presidential powers, Bill Clinton’s pardon of Rich was still scandalous, and this case too. Whether it’s more corrupt to help a relative than a party donor or donor’s spouse is an interesting subject for debate about the nature of political ethics, but I don’t think we need to resolve that question. Even if it’s constitutional, past presidents have used the pardon power in legal and disreputable ways, and the pardoning of your son is also quite disreputable.

For one, his rationale closely echoes Donald Trump’s claims of a politicized Justice Department — even though the charges against Hunter Biden and Trump, the first president to be convicted of a felony, are very different. Trump was charged with trying to overturn the 2020 election and endangering national security through his handling of classified documents, though both cases were dismissed after his 2024 election victory.

“I don’t believe in the justice system but I also think that raw politics corrupted it and resulted in a wrong verdict,” Biden said. “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”

No reasonable person who watches the facts of Hunter’s case can reach a different conclusion than that which Hunter is my son, according to Biden.

The special counsel in the firearm probe denied facing political interference, though Biden accused his opponents in congress of instigating the charges against Hunter.

Hunter Biden vowed not to pardon his son – but he should have known about his addiction to crack cocaine and tax offenses

The president has said publicly that he would not pardon his son — but reversed that promise in an announcement on Sunday in which he called the prosecution unfair and selective.

Hunter Biden was convicted for lying about his addiction to crack cocaine when he bought a gun, and pleaded guilty to federal tax offenses for not paying their full taxes. Sentences in both cases were scheduled to be handed down later this month.

The addiction of Hunter Biden is no excuse for violating the law, as 12-step programs made clear, so he should be held accountable for his actions. You think that you should have respected his son in office because you think Biden had legitimate powers as president.