CNN
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President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son has infuriated some Democrats because he has repeatedly and unequivocally claimed he would never take that step, even though Hunter Biden’s legal team had long believed a pardon was possible.

Several officials who recently worked for Joe Biden said they never believed the president or White House aides were speaking on his behalf when they insisted in recent months that a pardon for Hunter Biden was off the table be.

“Anyone who was anywhere near the top knew they would probably do that. “Why did we do anything different?” said a former senior West Wing aide.

Another former senior White House official said she and others around her were “certain” that the president would ultimately pardon his son, while another former administration official put it: “It was extremely, painfully obvious that the Things would come here.” end.”

But even as some of Joe Biden’s closest allies were puzzled by the president’s last-minute pardon, Hunter Biden and his lawyers long believed it was possible, multiple sources told CNN. This is despite the White House saying that a final decision on the pardon would not be made until this weekend.

The president’s move Sunday night to announce the pardon came after he spent time with his family, including Hunter, in Nantucket, Massachusetts, over the Thanksgiving holiday and has led to criticism from lawmakers in Biden’s own party. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said as recently as November 7 that a pardon for Hunter Biden was not being considered.

Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son represented a delicate balancing act for the president, who has long remained loyal to his family even when it hurts him personally or politically.

Hunter Biden was convicted by a jury in June of illegally purchasing and possessing guns as a drug user, after a heartbreaking trial that highlighted his drug abuse and family problems. Then in September, he pleaded guilty to nine tax offenses stemming from $1.4 million in taxes he failed to pay while also spending heavily on escorts, strippers, cars and drugs.

Sources familiar with Hunter Biden’s legal strategy said he did not agree in September to plead guilty to all nine counts in the federal tax case – putting himself at risk of a prison sentence of 17 years and a fine of more than $1 million – without any expectation that there would have been leniency.

Legal pressure on Hunter Biden increased as his December sentencing date approached. People close to the president’s son said they did not want him to face sentencing.

In the days before the pardon, Hunter Biden’s lawyers distributed a 50-page document outlining the six-year investigation into the president’s son and blaming Donald Trump and Republican allies for being the driving force behind his legal troubles.

Although controversial, Joe Biden’s move to pardon a close family member or associate is not uncommon. Presidents of both parties have exercised their pardon power in ways that have raised eyebrows — although perhaps none have done so after declaring as clearly as Biden did that they would not.

Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, his daughter’s father-in-law, in his final month in office. On his last day in office, President Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger, who had pleaded guilty to drug charges.

Biden’s public backpedal this weekend and the issuance of a sweeping “full and unconditional” pardon for his son has led some Democrats to question why he had maintained that he would not take actions that were simply inevitable for so many around the president had appeared.

“As a father, I understand that,” Rep. Greg Landsman, an Ohio Democrat, said on X. “But as someone who wants people to believe in public service again, this is a setback.”

Another Democrat, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, said Biden’s decision “puts personal interests above duty and further undermines Americans’ belief that the justice system is fair and equal for all.”

Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona said that while he respects the president, “I think he got this wrong.”

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

A former administration official said Monday’s backlash would have been less severe had Biden not insisted for months that he would not seek a pardon for his son.

“I wonder if there would be a way to just be less fair and more like, ‘Let’s not waste our time thinking about this,'” the former administration official said.

The former senior West Wing aide echoed that sentiment, saying there were several ways Biden could have left the door open for a pardon rather than ruling out the possibility entirely.

“Could he have been super honest?” they asked. “Like, ‘Hey, I don’t know, I can’t answer that right now.'”

Jean-Pierre, who has told reporters more than once that Biden would not pardon his son, admitted Monday that Trump’s election victory last month was a factor.

“That’s a no – I can answer that, that’s a no,” Jean-Pierre told reporters from Air Force One when asked whether Biden would have pardoned his son if Vice President Kamala Harris had won the election.

But then she insisted that she wasn’t interested in talking about an event that didn’t happen: “I can speak to where we are today, and so I can’t speak to hypotheses here. Where we are today, the president made that decision over the weekend.”