Hidden and Corrupt: Hunting a Pardon in the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act during the First Donald J. W. Biden’s Presidency

The hypocrisy is even more obnoxious. Every year, federal prosecutors file hundreds of cases against persons charged with lying on the Firearms Transaction Record, or Form 4473, which is required from anyone buying a firearm from a licensed gun dealer. The Brady Handgun ViolencePrevention Act was a part of that. How is it that the same president who made both gun control and stricter tax enforcement key parts of his political message suddenly sees his own son’s transgressions as nuisance offenses?

For his part, Hunter Biden was hardly shy about telling the people around him that he wanted — needed — a pardon, although it is unclear how often he had discussed the matter directly with his father before this past week. The president, even before he made the decision to issue a pardon, made it clear that he did not want to see his son serve a single day behind bars.

Mr. Biden sought to define his presidency in counterpoint to the corruption and indecency of the first Trump years. With the pardon of his son, Mr. Biden added his name to the roll call of presidents who dishonored their office by misusing the pardon power. By changing his mind on issuing the pardon Mr. Biden seems to have realized how wrong it was.

By late July, Mr. Biden had dropped out of the presidential race, reluctantly. Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to a crime on the eve of his tax trial. In November, Vice President Kamala Harris lost the presidential election to Mr. Trump. And Mr. Biden, now an 82-year-old lame-duck, single-term president, had been following the news, watching as Mr. Trump vowed to stock his administration with a vengeful cast of characters who would use the judicial system to punish political opponents.

Mr. Biden realized that he might not be able to obtain a pardon because of the pressures of the trials, and that it would be too late to prevent his son from falling back into drink and drugs. It seems there was never any serious consideration of a commutation of his sentence, or even a full pardon.

Presidential pardons are always discretionary and are not limited in the number or to whom they are given. In this way, they reveal their roots in the royal prerogative of mercy. The reason for pardons is because they want to.