Despite his dad’s cushy presidential pardon, first son Hunter Biden’s legal woes are anything but over.
Now a federal judge has moved quickly to escalate an ongoing Hunter Biden legal battle that could still land the disgraced son back in a courtroom… and even behind bars.
Here’s what’s happening.
According to a scathing report from Politico, the judge who presided over Hunter Biden’s tax case took exception to Joe Biden’s pardon, even arguing that some parts might be unconstitutional.
Judge Mark Scarsi offered his legal observations as to the rationale put forth by Joe Biden in his statement regarding the pardon.
🚨 This opinion from the judge overseeing the tax prosecution of Hunter Biden is worth reading every word… https://t.co/7EM3GsCO3O
— Tristan Leavitt (@tristanleavitt) December 4, 2024
In a nutshell, Judge Scarsi, while admitting that Hunter Biden’s tax case was dismissed, Scarsi also noted that Hunter’s team botched things by merely providing a hyperlink to the White House press release regarding the pardon rather than filing an accurate copy of the pardon.
Portions of Scarsi’s statement read:
“In short, a press release is not a pardon. The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 1, but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.”
Scarsi also noted the discrepancies in the timing of the pardon, saying that, while pardons are not to be prospective in nature, the Biden pardon purports to offer clemency to Hunter through December 1, 2024, even though it was signed by the president on December 1, i.e., with time still remaining on the clock for that date.
In theory, the pardon also encompassed “conduct that had not yet occurred at the time of its execution, exceeding the scope of the pardon power.” Scarsi expressly declines to read it as such and concludes: “The warrant explicitly brings the charges in this action within the ambit of the pardon, indicating presidential intent for the pardon to apply to this case even if it is unconstitutional in other respects.”
Scarsi also suggests some aspects of the pardon may be unconstitutional because it could be read to apply to a portion of Dec. 1 that occurred after Biden signed it. pic.twitter.com/8EygMJ7Toa
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 4, 2024
The bottom line?
While Hunter Biden may have skated around major legal battles in the near term, this does potentially open the door for more legal woes down the road, despite his dad’s shoddy pardon.