Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has condemned President Joe Biden’s decision to grant a full and unconditional pardon for his son, Hunter Biden.
Just weeks before Hunter Biden was scheduled to be sentenced in two criminal cases, the Democratic president announced he would pardon his son “for those offenses 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,” according to a statement posted Sunday evening.
Following the announcement, Perez, who represents Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, said she believes Biden “made the wrong decision.”
“President Biden’s pardon of his son confirms a common belief I hear in Southwest Washington: that well-connected people are often gifted special treatment by a two-tier justice system,” Perez wrote Monday in a statement posted on X.
Joe Biden previously said he would not pardon his son or interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making.
In June, Hunter Biden was convicted in a Delaware case related to gun ownership. He was found guilty of three felonies for lying about his drug use on a form when buying a gun, according to the Associated Press.
In September, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in California to nine federal tax charges and was awaiting sentencing. The tax charges carry up to 17 years behind bars and the gun charges are punishable by up to 25 years in prison, according to the Associated Press.
“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said in his statement. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son.”
