Experts say President Joe Biden's sweeping pardon of son Hunter looks like the one Gerald Ford gave Richard Nixon in 1974.
Ford, sworn in after Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal, granted a "full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed."
Ford noted in his remarks that the pardon reflected his presidential responsibilities and personal beliefs.
The president on Monday pardoned his son, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family.
The president's sweeping pardon covers not just the gun and tax offenses against the younger Biden, but also any other "offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024."
Margaret Love, who served from 1990 to 1997 as the U.S. pardon attorney, told Politico that she had "never seen language like this in a pardon document that purports to pardon offenses that have not apparently even been charged, with the exception of the Nixon pardon.
"Even the broadest Trump pardons were specific as to what was being pardoned."
Samuel Morison, a lawyer focused on clemency who spent 13 years in the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney, said the pardon "is an extraordinary broad grant."