President Joe Biden will be leaving the White House next month, but pardon power remains his for a few more weeks and Hunter Biden's lawyers are reportedly launching and 11th-hour bid for clemency.
Hunter Biden's lawyers released a 52-page argument for a pardon Saturday titled "The political prosecutions of Hunter Biden," The Washington Post reported.
"Here, in one place, is the complete and reprehensible history of the political persecution of Hunter Biden," lawyer Abbe Lowell wrote in a statement announcing the argument. "This is a seven-year saga propelled by an unrelenting political desire to use a son to hurt his father.
"It is a wild and terrifying story that serves as a stark warning of what is to come as some of the same Republicans who targeted Hunter prepare to resume power and have stated their intention to use the government's vast power to pursue their perceived enemies."
While the messaging is adoptive of President-elect Donald Trump's rebukes of the Biden Justice Department's pursuit of him, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in September to tax evasion and could face up to 17 years in prison and $1.3 million in fines at a Dec. 16 sentencing.
Hunter Biden is also facing Dec. 12 sentencing after a jury found him guilty of three counts for possession of a firearm while addicted to illegal drugs.
President Biden has rejected talk of a pardon, but the lawyers are making the public case with less than two weeks left.
"We've been asked that question multiple times and our answer stands — which is no," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters last month.
The lawyers are arguing against the abuse of power against Hunter Biden, albeit from his own father's Justice Department.
"A system that is supposed to protect against abuses failed to do so and was corrupted by political leaders in this country," the memo argued. "As a result, Hunter faces significant sentences for felonies and misdemeanors far beyond precedents of others committing less serious offenses or where civil resolutions or consent judgments are normally sought — all on the basis of his mistakes, made while in the throes of serious drug addiction."
The argument added Hunter Biden "fully paid his past-due taxes with interest and penalties in 2021 — over two years before any charges were brought," although he did it with help of "sugar brother" pal Kevin Morris, the New York Post reported.
Also, Hunter Biden has said his guilty plea to the tax evasion was to not subject "my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment."
"The impact that the extraordinary and improper events described have had on Hunter and his family is obvious," the memo added.
"However, the effect that partisan politics can have on what is supposed to be an independent prosecutorial decision-making process extends beyond Hunter's case. Politics' outsize role reveals a new page in the playbook of politicizing investigations and prosecutions."
While Joe Biden potentially backpedals on pardoning his son, President-elect Donald Trump himself has not ruled it out either for the good of the country.
"I wouldn't take it off the books," Trump had told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
"There's no question about it, he's been a bad boy: All you had to do is see the laptop from hell.
"But I happen to think it's very bad for our country."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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