President Biden’s decision to renege on his pledge not to pardon his prodigal son’s crimes has consequences for the American justice system.
Ironically, it also may diminish resistance to President-elect Trump pardoning members of the mob that stormed the Capitol nearly four years ago in an effort to overturn Biden’s 2020 election victory.
The two situations are not equivalent, of course. Still, they both tear at the heart of America’s scruples.
More than 1,100 Trump supporters got convicted of participating in the siege that sent a joint session of Congress into hiding, injured scores of police officers and left the Capitol in a shambles.
Several defendants received probation for misdemeanor charges of entering the Capitol with the mob. But more than 600 were imprisoned from one month to up to 22 years on felony charges of destroying property, assault and battery or encouraging the attack.
Trump described them as “political prisoners” and “patriots,” promising to pardon them if elected president again. He said recently he will decide their pardons on a case-by-case basis.
A song titled “Justice for All” described their fate. Created and posted often on social media by a group of Jan. 6 defendants (“J6 Choir”) locked in a Washington, D.C. jail block, the song’s popularity drew sympathizers across the country. It briefly made music’s top hits list.
Democrats and legal experts denounce Trump’s plan to pardon Jan. 6 defendants as victims of misguided justice. The objection is somewhat hypocritical in the aftermath of Biden pardoning son Hunter. He was convicted of lying on a gun license application and income tax evasion.
What devastates the rule of law is Biden’s broken pledge to let his son face the consequences of his felony crimes, including possible prison time. His stunning turnaround occurred, he said, because his son was a victim of a Justice Department political prosecution.
That’s the exact reason Trump advances for his intent to pardon some, if not all, the Jan. 6 defendants. He also claims that’s why he was prosecuted and convicted of 34 felonies in his hush money trial as well as charges pending in his other legal cases.
Oddly, it seems Biden and Trump agree the Justice Department has been weaponized for political means. Trump says when he returns to office he will rid the department, including its FBI office, of what he calls partisan hacks bent on destroying the country. They will, of course, be replaced by diehard loyalists committed to his America First agenda.
Democrats can hardly object. Their president of the last four years has damned the Justice Department and demoralized its employees for his own sake. And just two months before departing the White House.
Listen to his attempt to rationalize the decision to pardon his son when he said repeatedly he would not.
“For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They will be fair-minded,” Biden said in a statement. “Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected the process and it led to a miscarriage of justice (of his son).”
Biden asked Americans to understand “why a father and a president would come to this decision.”
Many will not.
Sure, other presidents, including Trump in his first term, granted pardons to family and friends for alleged criminal behavior. In most of these cases, the persons pardoned felt the outcome of their sentences, including prison time.
Biden’s rollback of his no pardon pledge – just two weeks before his son’s sentencing — disregarded the legal standard that no person is above the law; that everyone is treated equally no matter their station in life.
Sadly, Biden’s decision of defiance comes at a time when the justice system’s moral fiber is fraying.
Bill Ketter is CNHI’s senior vice president for news. Reach him at wketter@cnhi.com.