Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia said the pardon of Hunter Biden was a reason to “revisit” the power of the president to grant clemency Monday.
President Joe Biden announced he pardoned Hunter Biden in a statement released Sunday night, claiming his son had been “singled out” and alleging that “political opponents” sought to “break” both him and his son by pursuing charges. Connolly accused Republicans of “vigilante justice” in probing Hunter Biden’s business dealings before calling for a constitutional change.
“I have a mixed response. As a father myself and as someone who knows Joe Biden, I can sympathize with his perspective that his son was, you know, subject to vigilante justice,” Connolly told CNN host Jim Acosta. “I certainly witnessed that in Republican depositions of Hunter Biden and his attorney. But having said that, what other father in America has the power to pardon his son or daughter if they’re convicted of a crime?”
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“I really think we have to revisit the pardon power in the Constitution and at the very least, I think we’ve got to circumscribe it so that you don’t get to pardon relatives, even if you believe passionately they’re innocent or that their cause is just,” Connolly claimed. “We just saw Donald Trump not only pardon in his previous administration his son-in-law’s father, but now appoint him to be ambassador to France. This is an abuse of power, and I think it needs to be corrected.”
A jury in Delaware convicted Hunter Biden in June on three felony gun charges in connection with the 2018 purchase of a Colt .38-caliber revolver while being addicted to illegal drugs. The younger Biden entered a guilty plea on federal tax charges in September in a federal court in California shortly before the trial was to start.
Some liberals and Trump critics criticized the pardon, with Democratic pollster Mark Penn calling the grant of clemency “disgraceful.”
During his first term in office, then-President Donald Trump pardoned retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, his former national security advisor, who entered a guilty plea for charges of lying to the FBI during the Mueller probe into allegations Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
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