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President Joe Biden went back on his word by issuing a full and unconditional pardon on December 1st for his son Hunter. He and his press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had repeatedly said that the president would not pardon his son. But it was all a lie. The sweeping pardon not only wiped away a jury’s guilty verdict on three federal gun-related criminal charges in Delaware and Hunter’s guilty plea to nine federal tax criminal charges in California. The pardon applies to all offenses that Hunter Biden “has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”

In other words, the presidential pardon, which Joe Biden had said he would not grant to Hunter, extends way beyond canceling Hunter’s guilt on the specific gun and tax charges. The pardon covers any federal crimes that Hunter may have committed going back to 2014. That just so happens to be when Hunter was bilking Ukraine’s corrupt energy company Burisma while serving as a director on Burisma’s board, despite having no relevant experience. At that time, Joe Biden just happened to be vice president and was serving as former President Obama’s point man in Ukraine. He allegedly abused this position by leveraging a decision on whether to provide $1 billion dollars in aid to Ukraine to pressure Ukraine’s then-president to fire the prosecutor investigating corruption at Burisma. Hunter was raking in millions of ill-gotten dollars for his own benefit and for the benefit of the Biden family syndicate in a classic pay-to-play scheme while Hunter’s dad was allegedly engaging in a quid pro quo.

In the statement that President Biden released justifying his decision to pardon his son, he claimed that Hunter had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.” Hunter’s father added that “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong…In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

Enough is enough of the lies and hypocrisy that have characterized Joe Biden’s presidency. In truth, Hunter was singled out for favorable treatment. The Biden Justice Department dragged its feet and failed to bring certain federal charges in a timely fashion, resulting in them being barred by the applicable statute of limitations.

Senior officials in the Biden Department of Justice were also blocking IRS investigators from following the evidence of possible tax evasion by Hunter Biden wherever it would have taken them during their investigation. This came to light only after IRS whistleblowers testified to a congressional panel how their investigation was being stymied to keep them away from crucial evidence that could have potentially led all the way to Joe Biden’s doorstep. The Biden administration was doing all that it could to cover up the extent to which Joe Biden was involved in his son’s foreign business relationships and was aware of the funds his son received from foreign sources.

As to Hunter’s lying about his drug use on a federal gun application form, Hunter’s lawyers had worked out a sweetheart deal with David Weiss, then the U.S. Attorney for the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Under the terms of the probation-only plea deal, Hunter would have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges and avoided any jail time. He would also have received immunity from all other federal charges for any past conduct that could have been brought against him in the future, such as violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. It took a perceptive federal judge to see right through the smoke and mirrors and refuse to accept this slap on the wrist plea deal.

Only then did the Biden Justice Department have to go back to square one. Biden’s hand-picked Attorney General Merrick Garland promoted David Weiss to the position of special counsel to more thoroughly investigate possible federal charges against Hunter. Following indictments on the federal gun and tax felony charges, Hunter was found guilty by a jury on the gun charges and pleaded guilty to the tax charges. Sentencing in both cases was scheduled for later this month. But President Biden’s pardon has wiped Hunter’s guilty-as-charged slate clean and mooted the need for any sentencing.

In his statement regarding the pardon, President Biden castigated the justice system’s handling of his son’s crimes while shamelessly declaring that “I believe in the justice system.” He insinuated that the federal judge who rejected the sweetheart plea deal did so under political pressure from his opponents rather than based on her independent assessment of legal precedent and the facts. And this president, who has said in the past that he would accept the jury’s decision regarding Hunter’s guilt or innocence, overrode the jury’s guilty verdict in his son’s gun case.

Even some Democrats sharply criticized the pardon. For example, Colorado’s Democrat Governor Jared Polis posted on X: “While as a father I certainly understand President @JoeBiden’s natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country. This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation. When you become President, your role is Pater familias of the nation. Hunter brought the legal trouble he faced on himself, and one can sympathize with his struggles while also acknowledging that no one is above the law, not a President and not a President’s son.”

Joe Biden has finally been revealed as the emperor with no clothes for all to see except his most diehard supporters and Democrat partisans. He put family before country while serving as Barack Obama’s vice president. And with the pardon of Hunter Biden, President Biden has continued to put his family before country.

That being said, there are silver linings in the sweeping pardon that President Biden granted to his son.

First, there is President Biden’s declaration in his pardon statement that his son was prosecuted by the Justice Department “selectively” and “unfairly,” adding that “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.” In offering this rationale for his pardon decision, President Biden strongly bolstered President-elect Donald Trump’s contention that the Justice Department has been unfairly weaponized against him for political reasons.

Second, the sweeping pardon means that Hunter will not be able to use the Fifth Amendment’s shield against self-incrimination to hide behind. Hunter will have to answer questions under oath when testifying at a congressional hearing or in court about his and his associates’ nefarious foreign business dealings as well as about his father’s knowledge and involvement. The veil of secrecy over the Biden family syndicate’s criminal activities could be removed once and for all if Hunter decides to come clean. However, if Hunter refuses to fully answer the questions, he can be held in contempt. If he lies under oath, he will be guilty of perjury. Either way, Hunter could then find himself behind bars after all.

As the saying goes, the cover-up is often worse than the original crime itself. If then-Vice President Joe Biden violated the federal bribery or other laws when he pressured Ukrainian’s president at the time to fire the prosecutor investigating Burisma, the statute of limitations would bar his prosecution for such crimes. But that does not necessarily mean that President Biden is in the clear. He should have to answer for any part he had in impeding the IRS criminal investigation of his son’s tax-related activities. What did President Biden know about the alleged cover-up and when did he know it?

Even if President Biden was not directly involved in such a cover-up himself or he could successfully invoke presidential immunity for “official” acts, Biden administration officials who participated in the cover-up are still in legal jeopardy. They could be held criminally liable for corruptly obstructing or impeding, or attempting to obstruct or impede, the due administration of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 7212(a)).

The House Ways and Means Committee disclosed testimony by the IRS whistleblowers that shed light on how their investigation was impeded by higher-ups in the Biden administration.

According to the Committee, “IRS Whistleblowers who were part of the Hunter Biden Investigatory team explained how the Biden Justice Department intervened and overstepped in a campaign to protect the son of Joe Biden by delaying them from taking needed steps in their investigation, divulging key information about the investigation to Hunter Biden’s attorneys, and denying approval to bring charges – multiple times.”

The IRS whistleblowers testified, for example, that prosecutors tipped off attorneys for Hunter in advance of a planned search by IRS investigators of a Northern Virginia storage unit in which Hunter Biden had stored files. This provided Hunter and his attorneys with the opportunity to gain access to the documents before the IRS investigators arrived, and remove or destroy relevant evidence. They also testified that prosecutors instructed investigators not to ask witnesses questions regarding Joe Biden or references to the “big guy.”

Who were the prosecutors who allegedly impeded the IRS investigators from securing the evidence in its original state at the Northern Virginia storage unit? And who instructed investigators to refrain from asking questions that could potentially implicate Joe Biden?

The IRS investigators who blew the whistle said that they were retaliated against for raising their concerns about the impediments to their investigation up their chain of command. The whistleblowers and their entire team were removed from the investigation on May 15, 2023 altogether, after they blew the whistle to Congress.

Who instigated any retaliations against the whistleblowers and what form did the retaliations take? Who made the decision to remove the whistleblowers and their entire team from the investigation before it was completed?

The incoming Trump administration should investigate and prosecute all individuals from the Biden administration whom the Trump Justice Department has reasonable cause to believe participated in the cover-up by impeding the IRS investigation of Hunter Biden’s tax-related activities. That would include Attorney General Merrick Garland, IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, their subordinates, and Joe Biden himself if the evidence points in their direction.