President Joe Biden was slammed by the federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax charges, with a fiery ruling declaring that the reasoning behind the president’s pardon of his son is false and offensive.
On Tuesday, Judge Mark C. Scarsi issued a scathing ruling that deemed the reasons listed in “the President’s statement” on the pardon to be false and offensive — writing that the reasons “stand in tension with the case record” and arguing that they are an attempt to rewrite history. According to the judge, Biden has the power to pardon but “nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.”
“The President asserts that Mr. Biden ‘was treated differently’ from others ‘who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions,’ implying that Mr. Biden was among those individuals who untimely paid taxes due to addiction. But he is not… Mr. Biden admitted that he engaged in tax evasion after this period of addiction,” Scarsi wrote.
“According to the President, ‘[n]o reasonable person who looks at the facts of [Mr. Biden’s] cases can reach any other conclusion than [Mr. Biden] was singled out only because he is [the President’s] son.’ But two federal judges expressly rejected Mr. Biden’s arguments that the Government prosecuted Mr. Biden because of his familial relation to the President,” the judge added. “And the President’s own Attorney General and Department of Justice personnel oversaw the investigation leading to the charges. In the President’s estimation, this legion of federal civil servants, the undersigned included, are unreasonable people.”
Many have asserted that the judge was able to write this scathing ruling due to a mistake or error from the White House, as the pardon documents were not sent to the courts, only the White House press release on the pardon was released.
On social media, author Hans Mahncke highlighted this, writing: “The best part is that the judge only got the opportunity to say what needed to be said because Hunter’s legal team sent a hyperlink to Joe Biden’s sanctimonious statement instead of sending the pardon.”
The best part is that the judge only got the opportunity to say what needed to be said because Hunter's legal team sent a hyperlink to Joe Biden's sanctimonious statement instead of sending the pardon. pic.twitter.com/0IQHUUx5go
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) December 4, 2024
Scarsi tore into Hunter Biden for filing the motion demanding that the indictment be dismissed due to the pardon, but only included a link to the White House press release describing Biden’s decision to pardon his son, rather than the actual pardon.
“A press release is not a pardon,” the judge wrote.
Scarsi was also shocked at the insanely broad pardon — which covered not only the crimes Hunter Biden was convicted of or pled guilty to, but all potential crimes within the decade from 2014 until December 1, 2024, the day it was signed — pointing out that the president essentially gave his son an extra day to commit federal crimes. The judge noted that it is not possible to pardon future acts, though he did note that he assumed it was not meant in that way in order to avoid a constitutional issue.
The shocking reasoning in the president’s pardon even prompted opposition from his administration’s appointed special prosecutor, David Weiss, who filed a motion opposing Hunter Biden’s demand for the gun charge indictment to be dismissed. In doing so, Weiss made similar points to Scarsi — noting that 10 judges appointed by six different presidents had all rejected the claims by Hunter’s attorneys that he had been unfairly targeted.
Weiss further noted that a pardon is an act of mercy for a guilty individual, not an erasure of the facts of the charges against them — pointing out that Hunter Biden had been correctly indicted by a grand jury for his obvious crimes.
All of this comes as Biden is facing backlash on both sides of the aisle for the insanely broad pardon, especially after he and his allies spent months insisting that the president would be respecting the rule of law and not pardoning his son.
