The White House has defended President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter after repeatedly insisting he had no plans for such executive clemency.

The press secretary said Biden pardoned his son, who faces sentencing later this month in two federal cases, to protect him from persecution by the outgoing president’s political opponents.

The comprehensive pardon covers any potential federal crimes the 54-year-old Hunter may have committed over the course of a decade.

Republicans have sharply criticized the move, with President-elect Donald Trump calling it “an abuse and miscarriage of justice.”

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday that Biden “struggled” over the decision over the weekend during the family’s Thanksgiving vacation on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

The Democratic president issued the pardon on Sunday evening before leaving on an official trip to Africa.

Ms. Jean-Pierre told reporters from Air Force One en route to Angola: “He believes in the justice system, but he also believes that raw politics has infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice.”

Ms. Jean-Pierre said Biden believed Hunter had been “singled out” because of his identity and that “they (the president’s opponents) would continue to target his son.”.

“That’s why the president took this action,” she added. As recently as last month, Ms. Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden would not pardon his son.

In June, Hunter Biden became the first child of a sitting U.S. president to be criminally convicted after a jury in Delaware found him guilty on three counts of lying on a form about his drug use when purchasing a handgun.

In September, he also pleaded guilty to federal tax charges, which included failing to file and pay his taxes, tax evasion and filing a false tax return.

The pardon – which covers any potential federal crimes he may have committed between January 2014 and December 2024 – extends over a period of time beyond the tax and gun offenses.

It dates back to the year he became a board member of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma – a period in which his father, then a U.S. vice president, played a key role in American policy toward Kiev.

That period was the focus of a congressional investigation in which Republican lawmakers accused Biden of lying when he denied involvement in his son’s business dealings, even as their impeachment efforts failed. Biden has denied wrongdoing.

US First Lady Jill Biden said from the White House on Monday: “Of course I support pardoning my son.”

The president’s decision sparked angry reactions from Donald Trump and other senior Republicans, who have long accused the Biden administration of “arming” the Justice Department against its enemies.

On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said executive clemency was an “abuse and a miscarriage of justice.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson said that “trust in our justice system has been almost irreparably damaged by the Bidens and their abuses.”

Criticism from Democrats, who regularly accuse Trump of disregarding the rule of law, was more muted.

“President Biden’s decision puts personal interests above duty and undermines Americans’ trust that the justice system is fair and equal for all,” Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Congressman Greg Stanton, an Arizona Democrat, rejected Biden’s claim that the case was unfair.

“This was not a politically motivated prosecution,” he said. “Hunter committed crimes and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”

Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told the BBC he believes Biden misled the American people.

“President Biden has been disingenuous all along when he said he would not pardon his son,” Mr. Rahmani said.

“A pardon was the plan from the start, but President Biden misled the American people because he, then Kamala Harris, was in the middle of an election.”

When he took office in January, Trump could no longer revoke his predecessor’s pardon, Rahmani said.

The president’s power to pardon people is “absolute,” he said.

“Donald Trump or the Republicans can’t do anything about it,” Mr. Rahmani added.