Biden breaks his promise not to interfere in his son Hunter’s trial and makes history by granting him clemency

Before Biden, Clinton, with his half-brother, and Trump, with his father-in-law, used the pardon

Americans’ support for presidential pardon grows every year, polls show

Joe Biden has become the first president of the United States to use a pardon to free an immediate family member from his convictions, in this case his son Hunter for possession of weapons and tax crimes, despite promising that he would not do so, with You criticize the judicial system involved, which you have criticized for having allowed yourself to be “infected” by political pressures.

At a time when President-elect Donald Trump has already hinted that he will place his people in the Department of Justice and the FBI, and even considered the option of granting a self-pardon in his first term, it has been Biden who He has gone further by forgiving his son Hunter, who acknowledged during his judicial proceedings the acts of which he was accused.

With this decision, Biden has not only broken his promise not to interfere in the judicial system in favor of his son, but he has also disdained the rulings of those sentences, discrediting the fact that he had been convicted of a serious crime only “because of how he filled out a weapons form” and that he be taken to trial for crimes of tax evasion when it would have been worth paying what was owed “with interest and fines.”

THE OTHER PARDENTS TO RELATIVES BEFORE BIDEN

You have to go back to another Democratic administration to find the first case of an American president resorting to clemency to forgive a family member. The winner that time was Bill Clinton’s half-brother, Roger, who had his record cleared for a 1985 drug trafficking conviction and for which he had already served time.

Then came the pardon that Trump granted to his husband-in-law, Charles Kushner, convicted of witness tampering – he hired a prostitute to seduce and blackmail his brother-in-law -, tax evasion and illegal payments to electoral campaigns. Now, he has been chosen by the Republican magnate to be ambassador to France.

While waiting to know the media reach and for his already questioned political legacy after this last year that this pardon to his son Hunter may have, those that Clinton and Trump granted to theirs were not the most controversial.

Clinton’s presidential pardon the day before leaving the White House of businessman Marc Rich – accused, although never convicted, of fifty financial crimes, including tax evasion of $50 million and maintaining business ties with Iran– caused more of a stir than that given to his half-brother Roger.

For his part, on the eve of his abrupt departure from the White House, Trump signed his signature to pardon a long list of political allies, including Steve Bannon, his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, and his assistant Roger Stone.

WHAT DEGREE OF APPROVAL DOES THE PARDON HAVE AMONG AMERICANS?

According to the criteria of the Department of Justice, those who aspire to a presidential pardon must prove their good behavior after the conviction, accept their responsibility for what happened and correct any errors committed to the extent possible.

Public support for this measure of grace has increased over time, but the division among Americans continues to fluctuate, especially in specific cases and largely depending on who is in the White House at the time. Some, such as those granted by Biden to those accused of marijuana possession, have broad approval, but not those granted by Trump to his political partners.

According to a recent YouGov poll, 51 percent of Americans approve of the pardon, compared to 34 percent who disapprove, although the approval percentage is higher among Republicans – 66 percent – than among Democrats – 44 percent– and independents –49 percent–

77 percent consider it inappropriate for a president to pardon himself and 74 percent think the same if the pardon is directed to a member of his family. The other cases with less acceptance are the thanks granted to campaign donors, companies and members of the government.

Americans also agree in raising their doubts about the convenience of granting a pardon to a former president, as well as in making public the reasons that motivate the president of the United States to grant the pardon and establish restrictions on this measure of grace.

Historically, the pardons that have had the greatest acceptance have been Biden’s to those accused of possession of marijuana, 69 percent, or to military personnel convicted for their sexual condition or gender identity, 55 percent.

Former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter’s pardon of Vietnam War deserters also has public favor, with 54 percent approval.

On the opposite side, there are Trump’s pardons for some of his associates such as Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, or Charles Kushner, although, like many other cases, they move in percentages similar to the ignorance of those surveyed.

It should be noted that 50 years later, Ford’s presidential pardon of Richard Nixon for the ‘Watergate’ scandal keeps American society divided, as does Barack Obama’s pardon of Chelsea Manning, a former soldier and intelligence analyst who leaked to WikiLeaks. classified information about the US military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.