Serving US President Joe Biden has caused controversy after issuing a “full and unconditional” pardon for his son, Hunter, despite promising not to.
The Democratic president had previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence after convictions in the two federal cases in Delaware and California.
The move to excuse him comes weeks before Hunter Biden was set to receive his punishment after his trial conviction in the gun case and guilty plea on tax charges, and less than two months before president-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House.
The elder Biden has publicly stood by his only surviving son as Hunter descended into serious drug addiction and threw his family life into turmoil before getting back on track in recent years.
But what is it that Hunter was said to have done? Here is what we know.
What did Hunter Biden do?
The son of the serving president was due imminently before court for sentencing on gun and tax convictions.
He was found guilty of three firearms-related charges in June 2024 and admitted to illegally owning a gun while a drug user.
Hunter Biden's tax affairs have been under criminal investigation since late 2018 and, in September 2024, Biden pleaded guilty to all of the tax charges, of failure to pay at least $1.4m (£1.1m) in federal taxes that he had reportedly owed for the tax years running from 2016 to 2019.
The president’s sweeping pardon covers not just the gun and tax offences against the younger Biden, but also any other “offences against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024”.
What was his sentence likely to be?
It was reported that he was facing up to 17 years in prison, while the gun charges are punishable by up to 25 years in prison, and he was due to be sentenced on December 16.
However, it was unlikely he would have been sentenced to anything near that. Federal sentencing guidelines were expected to call for far less time and it was possible he would have avoided prison entirely.
What has Joe Biden said?
In a statement released Sunday evening, President Biden said: “I believe in the justice system but, as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”
What has Hunter Biden said?
Hunter Biden said in an emailed statement that he will never take for granted the relief granted to him and vowed to devote the life he has rebuilt “to helping those who are still sick and suffering”.
“I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport,” the younger Biden said.
