- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
Summary
President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, reversing his prior stance against using executive clemency.
The pardon covers Hunter’s federal gun conviction and tax evasion guilty plea, sparking political controversy.
Biden cited political attacks and a “miscarriage of justice” as reasons for his decision, emphasizing his son’s recovery from addiction and the targeting of his family.
Critics argue the move undermines the judicial process, while supporters view it as within Biden’s constitutional powers.
This decision shields Hunter from potential prison time as Biden nears the end of his presidency.
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Not a great look but at the same time I am not upset about it.
Hunter individually didn’t really deserve a pardon for tax offenses but I can understand it. Hopefully since we’re going full fuck it mode with presidential powers Biden can do something much more deserving of the powers like removing marijuana as a controlled substance and pardoning non-violent marijuana felons.
He already did pardon all federal use and simple possession crimes. But the vast majority are at the state level.
Is this just a distraction from the incoming administration refusing to sign ethics statements they signed into law, or avoiding background checks for sensitive government positions
I’ve always found it absurd that presidents possess the authority to grant pardons. It trivializes our judicial system and undermines its integrity. This power should not be vested in the presidency.
Honestly, I think it’s more of a practical matter. Even if they didn’t have explicit pardon power, whoever’s in charge of the executive has effective pardon powers by simply denying to carry out the orders of the court (see Jackson’s behavior which lead to the trail of tears).
At least by making it official it’s a lot more clear what’s going on, and maybe they had hoped this would lead to electoral consequences for those who abused it?
It’s supposed to be a check on the judicial. Are you suggesting it should be vested elsewhere or just not at all? I wouldn’t remove any checks on this court personally
How does this check work?
I mean if you’re president is an unethical convict, like the next one, it obviously doesn’t work as intended.
The judiciary should be entirely separated from the political as per the trias politica.
The president is then in turn checked by the legislature, who hold the power to impeach and remove.
Just that everything that works in theory stops working when you have 250 years to break it.
I mean that’s what it was meant for, to pardon political victims of the court. None of it was meant to work with political parties though like Washington(?) warned though. But none of it was meant for that
“We take the high road” mfers when the low road people go after his son:
The trolls are getting kicked out of Bluesky and landing here lol
pardoning the j6 in 1 month, eh
It’s bullshit that this is even controversial.
Sorry. Next time we’ll ask you before we decide what is going to be controversial. It’s been a crazy month, we let this one slide by but it won’t happen again
Good good, I like to be in the loop.
This is SUPREME CORRUPTION! What next? He’s going to Appointment Family Members to Government Positions? Allow the Highest Bidders to Buy OVERSIGHT Positions? SELL Pardons? DISGUSTING!
Democrats are twisting this as a great thing now after Biden said he would never do this, what a total bunch of hypocrites.
Once again more “it’s okay when our side does it” from them.
Republicans seemed to have successfully done a false equivalency. They lied about witch hunts and then did one, and then when the president swatted it away people reacted with, “Oh, they’re both the same.”
Trump pardons traitors, insurrectionists, Nazis. A witch hunt victim is in the same league, because family I guess. Not like that was the reason for the witch hunt or anything!
Democrats are pissed because all we had left after this election was our integrity. Biden can do what he wants honestly - he doesn’t owe us anything - but this is still depressing.
Biden 2028!
“Hey, you’ve seen my hog and you know I was a crackhead.”
I’m not a fan of the nepotism and I don’t plan on defending it. Biden claims he needs to do this to keep his family safe from an unfair system. If he’s going to do stuff like this and acknowledge our institutions are flawed how about do stuff for the American people, Ukraine, or anyone without the last name Biden. The peaceful transfer of power to fascism, but his family got theirs leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
No shit, he had 4 years to do these
Sentencing was in 2 days, which is still plenty of time for Biden to have pardoned if the sentence was out of line with normal sentencing guidelines-- aka, a “witchhunt”. Hunter was tried by a group of his peers for tax and gun crimes he clearly committed. I dont see how it could have been a witch hunt, since the congressional inquiry was shut down.
So why did Biden issue pardon before sentencing? One can only assume Hunter was about to get a sentence thats just fine and in line with his conviction. If he was about to get “nailed” in a “witch hunt” as some people said here, it would have been better to wait for the abusive behavior to be apparent before acting. Biden made hte choice not to wait, therefore there is probably no unfairness in Hunters case. We will never 100% know the truth either way, but the witchhunt theory just doesnt line up with the facts we can see with our own eyes.
So, Biden very likely abused his authority to let his son off for crimes that he should be accountable for as a citizen. Biden brought justice in the country down a notch for personal gain. Yet again, the man is not worthy of his office. Neither is Harris or Trump. They are all self centered corrupt opportunists acting for other reasons than the job is supposed to be about.
Evidently if it saves his son for a year in jail, Biden will wipe his rear with his party’s dignity, if not the entire concept of justice in this country.
