White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked Wednesday whether President Joe Biden would commute the impending sentence of his son, Hunter, who was convicted Tuesday of federal firearms violations. She said she hasn't spoken to the president about the case since the sentencing and that the sentence has not yet been scheduled.
I Hunter Biden Commutation of the sentence is an open question because the president has said he will not pardon his son. I assumed that would include pardon, an umbrella term for pardon, which is the administrative expression of forgiveness that can restore certain rights, and commutation, which reduces the sentence.
Perhaps the president's previous statements cover both, because the public is probably more familiar with the word “pardon” than the word “commutation,” and many people outside the Trump-era buffoon crew of pardoners don't have much reason to know the difference in the first place. Again, Hunter Biden's sentencing has not yet been scheduled, so he would first need to face prison time in order for this question to mature in practical terms.
But in this case, it would be a potentially odd distinction to leave open the possibility of a commutation while ruling out a pardon up front, although that's not what's happening here, and the spate of headlines about the president not ruling out a pardon will probably clarify that point.
The president's preemptive stance on pardons, likely born out of a desire to avoid being seen as giving preferential treatment, seems odd: Of course, pledging in advance not to pardon certain defendants would actually give the president's son worse treatment than average, since it would predetermine his eligibility for pardon when he has neither served any time in prison nor submitted a pardon application.
That aside, if the president's reason for refusing to pardon is something like “no one is above the law,” then taking action in favor of his son could run counter to that.
There could be a difference, however: if Hunter receives a sentence that is disproportionate to the sentences received by similar defendants (which, because charges against Hunter are rare, raises another issue of guilt under the law), the President could use his power to reduce the sentence to a similar one consistent with precedent but not issue a pardon.
But before we go further on this point, let's see what the ruling is and whether the President himself will further clarify this issue in the meantime.
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This article originally appeared on MSNBC.com.
