Joe Biden’s blanket pardon of his son, Hunter, was really a proxy pardon for the whole Biden family that hamstrings ongoing investigations into Biden family influence peddling schemes, according to Peter Schweizer.
In the latest episode of the Drill Down podcast, Schweizer points out that the schemes implicated not just Hunter but Joe himself, his brothers Frank and James, and other members of the Biden family. The pardon, “historically unprecedented” in its scope, is “a stunning acknowledgment of how corrupt this family is,” Schweizer says.
Every president has used and sometimes abused the pardon power, which is in the Constitution. In recent years, presidents have pardoned former political associates and wealthy supporters for specific crimes. But the only “full and complete pardon” ever issued before was by President Gerald Ford to the disgraced former president Richard Nixon.
Joining Nixon in that elite club is Hunter Biden, who was pardoned for any crimes he may have committed between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024. As Schweizer says in the podcast, that was not only an abuse of the pardon power but the action of a not-great father.
In addition to effectively ending investigations into alleged Biden family corruption, The Drill Down notes, six other factors should be stressed about Joe Biden’s unprecedented pardoning of his son.
- The enormous scope. Not only was this for a family member, but it effectively made Hunter Biden immune anything he might have done for the past 10 years, whether charged or uncharged, convicted or accused. The president made sure his son could not be charged based on the results of investigations that are still ongoing into his influence peddling.
- This is a proxy pardon that will extend to Joe Biden and other members of the Biden family. By pardoning Hunter, Biden crippled ongoing investigations into influence peddling that also implicated Joe and his brothers Frank and James, who made deals in similar fashion. Schweizer calls it, “a stunning acknowledgment of how corrupt this family is.”
- The timing matters. Why does it specifically start with Jan. 1, 2014, and end Dec. 1, 2024? Because, Schweizer explains, right after the start date is when the money from China first began to flow. Hunter traveled to Beijing aboard Air Force 2 in mid-December 2013 and made an investment deal with Chinese government and intelligence-connected officials that would later total to about $1.5 billion. In April of 2014 was the Burisma deal, when Hunter Biden was given a seat on the board of a Ukrainian oil and gas company despite having absolutely no knowledge or experience with the energy business. The Spring of 2014 was also when Hunter Biden secured a deal worth $3.5 million with Russian billionaire Elena Baturina. She was hoping to be left off the list of Russian oligarchs that were being sanctioned by the US following Vladimir Putin’s first invasion of Crimea. (She was never placed on the list.)
What about the end date? This may have to do with Hunter’s later career as an untrained artist who sold his artworks to art lovers for as much as $500,000 apiece. Although purchasers were not formally disclosed, some of them received ambassadorships from his father’s administration, according to reports. Some of the art was apparently sold to people in China. But through the pardon, any of those transactions would not be subject to investigation and possible prosecution, either. Why does he need coverage through all of November this year? Joe Biden stepped down from the race in July. Could there be money coming his way after dropping out — perhaps negotiated by his key advisor, Hunter — that might have warranted inquiry?
- A second bite at Hunter’s immunity deal. A prosecutor named David Weiss offered Hunter Biden a plea bargain in which he admitted to the gun charges and the feds dropped the tax charges. This deal was presented to a federal judge who rejected it, and the deal fell apart. Hunter Biden’s attorneys believed it would grant him total immunity from any future prosecution. “This shows how shameless the Bidens are,” Schweizer says. “Their goal was to clear Hunter for everything. With the pardon, that’s exactly what they are getting.”
- Trump’s election triggered the pardon. Had Kamala Harris won the election, her administration would certainly have shut down any ongoing investigations by the Justice Department of a wide influence-peddling operation by members of the Biden family. But with Trump’s election, the risk was too great of Ukraine furnishing evidence to the Trump administration of a quid pro quo by then-Vice President Joe Biden. Recall that as vice president, Biden threatened to withhold aid money in early 2017 (before he left office) unless the Ukrainian government fired a prosecutor named Viktor Shokin who was investigating Burisma.
- The criminal justice system does have a double standard, but not based on race or even wealth. It is based on political connections and family connections. “I’m a father, too,” Schweizer says. “I don’t think it’s acceptable that Joe Biden allowed this to happen. Hunter Biden did what he did because his father allowed him to do it. That’s not being a very good father.”
- The mainstream media is dead. The airwaves and video streams are full of embarrassing examples of supposedly objective reporters and commentators applauding Biden in the past for refusing to pardon his son. Almost everything they told us about Joe Biden has been shown as false. “The curiosity that they once had is completely gone,” Schweizer says. “They didn’t run stories looking into the details of any of this. Even now they continue to carry water for the Bidens. They told us Trump couldn’t be trusted with levers of justice, but look at what Biden did!”
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