Washington
CNN
—

President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he has pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who faced sentencing this month on gun charges and tax convictions.

“Today I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” the president said in a statement. It is a “full and unconditional pardon,” according to a copy of the executive clemency request.

This official grant of clemency cannot be revoked by President-elect Donald Trump.

By pardoning his son, Joe Biden broke a public promise he made repeatedly before and after leaving the 2024 presidential campaign. The president and his top White House spokesman have stated unequivocally, even after Trump won the 2024 election, that he would neither pardon Hunter Biden nor commute his sentence.

The pardon means that Hunter Biden will not be convicted for his crimes and eliminates any possibility of him being sent to prison, which would have been entirely possible. Once the judges overseeing his cases are informed of the pardon, they will likely cancel sentencing hearings that were scheduled for Dec. 12 in the gun case and Dec. 16 in the tax case.

The pardon covers all potential federal crimes committed by Hunter Biden “from January 1, 2014 to December 1, 2024,” which most notably includes his entire term on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma. He had come under criticism because of his controversial foreign dealings.

Joe Biden said in the statement that he chose the pardon because his son was “selectively and unfairly prosecuted” and said that “Hunter was treated differently” than people who commit similar crimes.

The president said his political opponents in Congress “incited the charges to attack me and oppose my election.”

“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president come to this decision,” he said in the statement.

Hunter Biden was convicted by a jury in June of illegally purchasing and possessing guns 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.

Special Counsel David Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for Delaware, began investigating Hunter Biden in 2018 and filed both indictments in 2023. As president, Joe Biden had the authority to stop the investigation or order the Justice Department to dismiss the indictments — but he kept his promise to stay out of the matter.

Both criminal cases centered on Hunter Biden’s decades-long battle with drug and alcohol addiction, which he openly discussed, including in his 2021 memoir. From the outset, Hunter Biden’s lawyers argued that he was the target of overzealous prosecutors gave in to public pressure from Trump and Republicans in Congress.

Although Joe Biden had hoped to remain deferential to the justice system, the president came to believe that “crude politics had infected the process,” a White House official familiar with the decision told CNN on Sunday.

“He feels that Hunter was targeted to be hurt by his political opponents and that was cruel and he has endured enough,” the official said. “Once he did it, there was no point in delaying it any further.”

One thing particularly struck the president: the belief that his political opponents were trying to “break Hunter,” as he said in his statement, while Hunter Biden was recovering from addiction. The president noted his son’s five-and-a-half years of sobriety “even in the face of relentless attacks and selective prosecution.”

He said he “struggled” with the decision and came to his conclusion this weekend. The Bidens spent the Thanksgiving holiday together in Nantucket, where the president and his son were seen at lunch, at the tree lighting and attending mass.

Joe Biden spoke strongly – but also as a father – in his statement Sunday evening: “No reasonable person looking at the facts of Hunter’s cases can come to any conclusion other than that Hunter was singled out simply because he was my son is – and that is wrong.” .”

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s MJ Lee contributed to this report.