President Joe Biden previously had pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who had been convicted in a criminal gun case and pleaded guilty in a tax case.

No further info in the article as it’s breaking news. NBC broke into the inauguration to announce it.

Biden pardoned his entire family and their spouses as Trump directly threatened all of them.

    • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
      19·
      9 hours ago

      They don’t, but that’s not the point. Trump has suggested that various members of Biden’s family and inner circle I have done wrong and should be prosecuted. This is preemptively heading that off, ensuring that there cannot be a witch hunt.

    • JPAKx4@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      23·
      13 hours ago

      In the US it’s just basically untested, but it probably wouldn’t hold up but you can still write it on the paper 🤷‍♂️

      • Stern@lemmy.world
        5·
        4 hours ago

        https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/71/333/

        The power of pardon conferred by the Constitution upon the President is unlimited except in cases of impeachment. It extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment. The power is not subject to legislative control.

        I don’t think Trump would try it since he probably wants to use it on himself as well, but then again SCOTUS could be on some “rules for me, but not for thee” shit with it and it wouldn’t matter anyhow.

      • COASTER1921
        14·
        12 hours ago

        With the Trump appointed supreme court it definitely won’t hold up, but maybe it could delay whatever meaningless charges he can come up with long enough for another election. If we’re lucky enough to have another real election that is at least.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
      12·
      12 hours ago

      I don’t think they are preemptive pardons in the sense that they are pardons for future crimes. They are pardons for unspecified past crimes that have not yet been charged. That is not unheard of. For example, Carted issued blanket pardons for everyone who dodged the draft during the Vietnam war whether they had been charged or not.

      Where it is untested is if he tried to pardon himself. That has never been tested in the courts and is generally considered invalid on the premise that you cannot be the judge in your own trial.

      • SSTF@lemmy.world
        2·
        4 hours ago

        Or more recently (and I suppose in the same wheelhouse as the topic at hand), Hunter Biden’s pardon was a blanket pardon for any potential crimes that may have been committed on January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024. It wasn’t just for what he had specifically been charged with at the time.

      • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
        3·
        11 hours ago

        So basically it just sets the statue of limitations of everything to 0?

        So if we find out one of these people raped someone at some point before this pardon, there will be no justice?