President Joe Biden Thursday vowed not to commute any sentence his son Hunter may get after his conviction on federal gun charges.
“No,” Biden said in response to shouted questions from reporters about commuting Hunter Biden’s sentence at the end of a press conference with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Group of Seven nations summit in Italy.
Biden also repeated his insistence that he wouldn’t pardon his son in his first televised remarks about the case since a Delaware jury convicted him for falsely saying he wasn’t addicted to illegal drugs when he bought a handgun in 2018.
“I’m extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction … I said I would abide by the jury decision,” Biden said. “I will do that. I will not pardon him.”
Commuting Hunter Biden’s sentence would prevent him from serving time in prison or other legal consequences. A pardon would expunge the felony conviction completely.
Biden had said before the jury reached its verdict that he would not pardon Hunter.
But he had not previously discussed commuting the sentence and aides had refused to rule it out.
Hunter Biden, 54, was found guilty Tuesday of falsely filling out a federal form denying he was addicted or using illegal drugs when he purchased a firearm as well as lying to a gun dealer and knowingly possessing the revolver in violation of restrictions against people addicted to drugs owning firearms.
He could potentially face 25 years in prison and experts say he could realistically face a few months behind bars when he faces sentencing expected sometime in the fall.
The presidential son’s defense team plans to appeal the conviction on several procedural grounds.
They also claim the law violates the Second Amendment guaranteeing the right to bear arms. A recent federal appeals court decision cast legal doubt on a similar law barring those accused of domestic violence from buying guns.
Hunter Biden also faces a forthcoming trial on federal tax charges in California.
He seemed poised to skate on both alleged crimes last year when prosecutors and Hunter Biden’s defense lawyers reached a plea agreement. But that deal collapsed under scrutiny from by the same federal judge who later presided over the gun trial.
The case’s federal prosecutor was held over from the Trump administration and granted additional powers to free his hand to act as he saw fit.
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