Members of NH congressional delegation condemn Biden pardon

Congresswoman-elect Maggie Goodlander warned that President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, doesn’t bode well for Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House.

“I’m concerned about the precedent that this pardon sets and the ways it could be used in the days ahead to undermine the rule of law and the integrity of our justice system,” Goodlander said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

Goodlander, who will be sworn in next month to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster and represent the state’s second congressional district, doesn’t often part ways with her former boss. Before running for Congress, she was a senior White House advisor, leading Biden’s Unity Agenda. She also previously served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department, and she repeatedly underscored the importance of integrity in the justice system during her campaign.

The pardon sparked widespread criticism. After pledging not to, Biden issued a categorical pardon for his son, Hunter, just weeks before his scheduled sentencing on gun and tax convictions. By choosing to put his family first, the 82-year-old president — who had pledged to restore a fractured public’s trust in the nation’s institutions and respect for the rule of law — has raised new questions about his already teetering legacy.

The rest of New Hampshire’s congressional delegation – all of them Democrats – shared Goodlander’s concerns.

Congressman Chris Pappas took issue with the president’s decision to reverse course. He said the pardon sets a “dangerous precedent,” especially on the eve of a second Trump term. The former president pardoned several allies and family members during his first term.

“I’m disappointed that President Biden went back on his word and issued a sweeping pardon for Hunter Biden,” Pappas said in the statement. “I understand his desire as a father to protect his son, but Hunter Biden was prosecuted and convicted for serious crimes.”

Sen. Maggie Hassan also focused on Biden’s flip.

“President Biden had previously said that he would not pardon his son Hunter, and he should have kept his word,” Hassan said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said the senior Democrat is concerned that the pardon will further erode trust in our institutions.

“Senator Shaheen believes strongly in maintaining the integrity and independence of our judicial system,” Rachel Huxley-Cohen, a spokesperson, said. “As a parent, she understands President Biden’s desire to protect his son; however, pardons like these contribute to the perception that some people have about the fairness of the U.S. criminal justice system.”

Kuster, who’s retiring from her seat in Congress next month, didn’t respond to interview requests from the Monitor.

Biden and his spokespeople had repeatedly and flatly ruled out the president granting his son a pardon.

In June, Biden told reporters as his son faced trial in the Delaware gun case: “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”

In July, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters: “It’s still a no. It will be a no. It is a no. And I don’t have anything else to add. Will he pardon his son? No.”

In November, days after Trump’s victory, Jean-Pierre reiterated that message: “Our answer stands, which is no.”

Neither Biden nor the White House explained the shift in the president’s thinking, and it was his broken promise as much as his act of clemency that was a lightning rod.

In a social media post, Trump called the pardon “such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice.”

“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” the president-elect asked. He was referring to those convicted in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters aiming to overturn the 2020 presidential election result.

Biden is hardly the first president to pardon a family member or friend entangled in political dealings. Bill Clinton pardoned his brother Roger for drug charges after he had served his sentence roughly a decade earlier. In his final weeks in office, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in law, Jared Kushner, as well as multiple allies convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice — and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further,” Biden said in a statement announcing the pardon.

Biden said the charges in his son’s cases “came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.” Many legal experts agreed that the charges against the younger Biden were somewhat unusual, but the facts of the offenses were hardly in dispute, as Hunter wrote about his gun purchase while addicted to illegal drugs in his memoir and ultimately pleaded guilty to the tax charges.

The pardon too was unusual, coming before Hunter Biden was even sentenced and covering not just the gun and tax offenses against his son, but also anything else he might have done going back to the start of 2014.

It’s a move that could limit the ability of the Trump Justice Department to investigate the younger Biden’s unsavory foreign business dealings, or to find new ground on which to bring criminal charges related to that time period.

Biden, in his statement, asked for consideration: “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”

The article includes reporting from Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Zeke Miller, as well as Aamer Madhani in Washington and Will Weissert aboard Air Force One.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for  America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly or send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.