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 confess that I had not considered the possibility of commuting Hunter Biden's sentence as an open question, since the president had said he would not pardon his son. I had assumed that pardon applied to pardons in general, a term that encompasses both pardons, which are executive expressions of forgiveness that can restore certain rights, and commutations, which reduce the sentence of a person's life.
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.
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.
But there could be a difference: If Hunter Biden faces a punishment disproportionate to that received by similar defendants (which, as in this case, raises the separate issue of guilt under the law, since his crimes have rarely been prosecuted), the president could use his power to reduce the punishment to a similarly consistent level and 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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