In the wake of Hunter Biden's indictment on felony gun charges last week, questions have again arisen as to whether President Joe Biden would offer his son a pardon upon conviction, but according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, no such move is on the cards, according to The Hill.
On Friday, Jean-Pierre was asked to comment on the first son's legal predicament and on whether it was likely that his father would step in to provide clemency if he were to be found guilty, answering in the negative.
No pardon forthcoming
As she did when asked the same question back in July, Jean-Pierre told reporters that the president had no intention of pardoning his son if a criminal conviction against him is secured.
“I've answered this question before. It was asked of me not too long ago, a couple of weeks ago, and I was very clear, and I said no,” Jean-Pierre explained.
The press secretary was making a clear reference to remarks she made earlier in the summer when a plea deal Hunter Biden expected to enter into with federal prosecutors fell apart, causing him to plead not guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses and one felony gun charge.
At that time, when asked about the possibility of a pardon, Jean-Pierre replied that one would not be forthcoming and offered no additional comment on the matter.
Lowell expects dismissal
One person casting doubt on the notion that a pardon will even be necessary is high-powered defense attorney Abbe Lowell, who is representing Hunter Biden in his new criminal case, as Breitbart reports.
Lowell has gone so far as to suggest that the counts leveled against his client will be dismissed prior to trial.
“On the facts, we think we'll have a defense,” Lowell explained to ABC News last week.
He went on to state his belief that the entire basis on which the charges were brought is in itself “likely unconstitutional” and that they are the result of Republican attempts to interfere with the 2024 election.
Gutfeld's theory
Less convinced by Jean-Pierre's insistence that a pardon for Hunter Biden is out of the question was Fox News personality Greg Gutfeld, who believes that the president will indeed grant clemency to his son before stepping down from the nation's top job, allowing the Democratic Party to rid itself of a candidate who looks increasingly like a massive electoral liability.
“I think that Joe is not going to be there for 2024, right? And they're going to tell him that, he's got to go back, to home, but that the tradeoff, is that he gets to pardon Hunter,” Gutfeld theorized, but whether that scenario is indeed the one that ultimately plays out in the months to come, only time will tell.
