President Biden faced mounting criticism Monday over the “sweeping” pardon of his son Hunter Biden. Critics expressed fears that Trump could use this to advance his views on a “politicized” Justice Department and undermine the Justice Department’s role as an important check on executive power.

In a statement announcing the pardon, Biden took aim at what he said was a politically motivated investigation.

“No reasonable person looking at the facts of Hunter’s cases could come to any conclusion other than that Hunter was chosen solely because he is my son – and that is wrong,” the president wrote.

This Biden took advantage of his final weeks as a lame-duck president Protecting his only living son from prosecution caused less shock among legal experts than the sheer scope of the pardon itself, which spans nearly 11 years and begins in January 2014, the year Hunter joined the Ukrainian Board of Directors Energy industry firm Burisma, and ends on Sunday, the day the White House announced the pardon.

While that time frame includes both the federal firearms and tax evasion convictions for which Hunter was convicted this year, experts say the scope of the pardon could go much further, extending to all acts committed more than a decade ago and virtually ensures that the President’s son cannot be held accountable for any activities carried out during this period.

In terms of length and scope, Hunter Biden’s pardon “really couldn’t be more comprehensive, to be honest,” said Trey Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor and member of Congress, in an interview with Fox News Digital.

The time frame included in the pardon covers “almost all federal statutes of limitations,” Gowdy said. “For the vast majority of federal crimes, this covers that time period and means no charges can be filed.”

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President Biden and Hunter Biden (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Critics note that Biden has reneged on his own repeated statements that he would not pardon Hunter earlier this year. First after he was found guilty of three gun crimes in June, and then in September after he pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges of tax evasion.

“I’m not going to do anything,” Biden said this summer. “I will stick to it the jury’s decision.”

This week, Biden did the opposite.

White House officials insist that Biden is still supporting his claim this summer that “no one is above the law.”

“As he said in his statement, he has great respect for our justice system,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “And as numerous legal experts have emphasized, this pardon is undeniably within his authority and justified by the facts of the case.”

“The pardon power was written in absolute terms, and a president can, in my opinion, even pardon himself,” Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, wrote in an editorial for Fox News Digital.

“However, what is constitutional is not necessarily ethical or right,” Turley said, adding that Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter was “one of the most disgraceful pardons even in the checkered history of presidential pardons.”

“His portrayal of his son as a victim stands in sharp contrast to the sense of immunity and power that Hunter conveys through his actions,” Turley said.

Biden pardons his son Hunter Biden before leaving the oval office

Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden (Ryan Collerd/AFP via Getty Images)

Some lawmakers and legal analysts separately expressed fears that the pardon could further erode public trust in the Justice Department, lending more credence to Trump’s frequent complaints that the Justice Department is a political machine that can be “weaponized,” rather than a department Those who strive for this act independently and largely without political influence.

By granting the pardon, Biden is “essentially endorsing Trump’s long-held view that the Justice Department is politicized and does not act impartially,” longtime GOP strategist and communicator Ryan Williams said in an interview with Fox News.

Gowdy said Biden’s pardon reflects his longstanding view that the Justice Department has become too politicized in recent years and needs to be reformed by both Biden and Trump family members.

“When I was a prosecutor, politics had nothing to do with my job,” Gowdy said. “I didn’t know the politics of a single one of my colleagues.” The focus, he said, should shift back to “targeting fact patterns rather than people.”

“The persecution of his political enemies, the involvement of family members, all of this is new and really dangerous.”

Special counsel David Weiss, who brought both cases against Hunter Biden, defended his cases against claims that the prosecutions were politically motivated, noting in a court filing Monday that Hunter Biden’s team “filed eight motions to dismiss the charges, including “I put forward every possible argument” as to why it should be dismissed, all of which were found to be unfounded.

Weiss added: “There was no evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case.”

President Biden’s pardon of son Hunter is a political gift for Trump going forward

Hunter Biden (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Still, some have objected to the intensive investigation into Hunter Biden, pointing out that he likely would not have been charged in the gun case without his father’s presidency.

Gowdy, a former Republican House member, said he ultimately agreed with that assertion.

“I prosecuted gun cases for six years,” Gowdy told Fox News Digital. “I wouldn’t have taken this case.”

“There’s a lot of really serious violent crime at the federal level, and I wouldn’t have wasted the resources on the gun part,” Gowdy explained.

But the former South Carolina lawmaker also said that doesn’t mean he let Biden’s son off the hook.

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“I definitely would have gone to the taxes and corruption allegations,” Gowdy said of the other allegations against Biden.

Ultimately, the Justice Department and the FBI need “significant reform,” Gowdy said.

“You have to get out of the political business.”

Paul Steinhauser of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.