Former President Joe Biden’s decision to extend pardons to multiple family members just before the close of his presidency drew swift backlash from political opponents, including his successor.
In the hours leading up to the inauguration of President Donald Trump, Biden, 82, issued a series of preemptive pardons to several members of his family, stirring a firestorm of debate over ethics, accountability and potential corruption.
The pardons covered seven family members, including his brother James Biden, sister Valerie Biden Owens, brother-in-law John T. Owens, sister-in-law Sara Jones Biden and his youngest brother, Francis Biden.
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The pardons cover any nonviolent offense from the named individuals from Jan. 1, 2014, to Jan. 19, 2024, and come after several Biden family members testified before the then-U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Accountability Committee as part of the panel’s influence-peddling investigation into President Biden and son, Hunter Biden.
Shortly after the inaugural ceremony, Trump, 78, said Monday evening the pardon made Biden “look very guilty.”
“I could have pardoned my family. I could have pardoned myself and my family,” the president said while speaking to reporters. “I said, ‘If I do that, it’s going to make me look very guilty’. I don’t think I’d be sitting here, frankly.”
Trump, who drew criticism of his own for pardoning hundreds of people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot on his first day in office, hinted that Biden’s pardons set an “unbelievable” precedent for future presidents.
“Now maybe every president that leaves office, they’re going to pardon every person they’ve ever met,” said Trump.
Biden addressed the pardons in a statement Monday, defending his actions by framing them as a response to what he called “unrelenting attacks” on his family.
“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics.”
The former president vehemently denied that the pardons signaled any admission of guilt, insisting that his family had done nothing wrong and that the decision was necessary to end what he described as politically motivated harassment.
Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, also criticized Biden’s last-minute maneuver.
In a Monday night appearance on Newsmax, Comer sharply criticized Biden, accusing him of using the pardons to shield his relatives from legal consequences in what he claims is an ongoing influence-peddling scheme.
“It’s wild,” Comer said during an interview on “Rob Schmitt Tonight.” “He pardoned his whole family. So, he’s pardoned seven Biden family members. Our investigation found that 10 Biden family members, including Joe Biden, received money through influence-peddling schemes that were laundered through a series of shell companies and then deposited in Biden family member’s bank accounts through incremental payments.”
Comer argued that the pardons amounted to an “admission of guilt,” stating that they demonstrated the former president’s awareness of his family’s involvement in illegal activities.
“Joe Biden lied to the American people. He said, ‘He would not pardon his family.’ You go back even further, he said, ‘He had no idea what his family did for a living.’ He said ‘he never met any of these people.’ Our investigation proved he met all of the people,” Comer added.
In June, Biden said despite the investigation into Hunter Biden’s illegal activities, he would not pardon his son who was convicted of three federal firearms-related felony charges in June 2024. In September, Hunter Biden pled guilty to three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses.
“I’m extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction. He is one of the brightest, most decent men I know,” Biden told reporters June 13. “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”
Despite those now-broken promises, Comer said testimony from the House investigation shows the allegations against Hunter Biden and others in the family could be “the biggest public corruption story in my lifetime.”
“And today was the exclamation point by Joe Biden pardoning his entire family preemptively,” Comer added.
Jonathan Turley, author and professor of public interest law at George Washington University, wrote in an editorial Monday that Biden “snatched infamy from the jaws of obscurity” — a move in which, Turley added, the media was complicit.
“The pardons were timed to guarantee that the media would not focus on yet another unethical act by this president,” Turley wrote. “He need not have worried. For four years, the media worked tirelessly to deny or deflect the corruption scandal surrounding the Biden family.”
“One of the most glaring lies was that he would never pardon his son. Few people believed him. Indeed, Hunter Biden’s bizarre criminal defense made no sense unless he knew that he had a pocket pardon if all else failed,” he added.
In addition to his family, Biden granted pardons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and the bipartisan U.S. House of Representatives select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, as well as the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the committee.
Biden set the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued just days prior to Monday’s statement.
