The federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax case issued a harsh rebuke of President Biden’s claim that his son was treated unfairly, as well as the president’s delivery method following the president’s last-minute pardon.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, who is based in the Central District of California and was nominated by President-elect Trump, accused President Biden in a scathing five-page order of “rewriting history” with the pardon and suggested that The breadth of the pardon granted to his son is unconstitutional.
“The Constitution gives the president broad authority to grant pardons and pardons for crimes against the United States, but nowhere does the Constitution give the president the authority to rewrite history,” he wrote.
BIDEN FORGIVES SON HUNTER BIDEN BEFORE LEAVING THE OVAL OFFICE
Hunter Biden leaves a House Oversight Committee meeting on Capitol Hill on January 10. On Friday, a judge denied a motion to dismiss a federal gun case against him. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
The judge expressed his displeasure that the president alerted the judicial system of his order to pardon his son through a White House press release.
“Instead of providing a true and correct copy of the pardon with the notice, Mr. Biden provided a hyperlink to a White House press release featuring a statement from the President on the pardon and the purported language of the pardon,” he wrote.
“In short, a press release is not a pardon,” he continued.
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Scarsi continued, reacting to the president’s statement about his son’s tax case: “the president claims that Mr. Biden ‘was treated differently’ than others ‘who fell behind on paying their taxes due to serious addictions,'” implying that Mr. Biden was among those people who paid taxes late due to addiction, but he is not.”
“According to the president, ‘[n]or reasonable person who analyzes the facts of [Mr. Biden’s] cases can reach any other conclusion that [Mr. Biden] was singled out only because he is [the President’s] son.’ But two federal judges expressly rejected Mr. Biden’s arguments that the Government prosecuted Mr. Biden because of his family relationship with the President. And the President’s own Attorney General and Department of Justice staff oversaw the investigation that led to the charges,” Scarsi wrote.
TWICE BIDEN SAID HE WOULD NOT FORGIVE HIS SON HUNTER BIDEN
“In the president’s opinion, this legion of federal officials, including the undersigned, are irrational people,” he said.
Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, leaves the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 3, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden is on trial for serious gun crimes. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The judge said he will resolve the case once he receives an official pardon from “the appropriate executive agency.”
He also vacated Hunter Biden’s sentencing, which was scheduled for December 16. The charges carried up to 17 years behind bars, but the first child likely would have faced a much shorter sentence under federal sentencing guidelines.
TRUMP PREVIOUSLY PREDICTED THAT BIDEN WOULD PARDO SON HUNTER
“Subject to the following discussion, the Court assumes that the pardon is effective and will resolve the case. The Supreme Court has long recognized that, despite its almost unlimited nature, the power of the pardon extends only to past crimes,” wrote.
FILE: President Joe Biden, wearing a Team USA jacket and walking with his son Hunter Biden, heads toward Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Hunter Biden, 54, has had a busy year in court, starting his first trial in Delaware in June, when he faced three felony firearm charges, before pleading guilty in a separate felony tax case in September. .
President Biden forgives her son is a departure from her previous comments to the media over the summer when she insisted she would not forgive the first child.
“Yes,” President Biden told ABC News when asked if he would rule out pardoning Hunter ahead of his guilty verdict in the gun case.
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Days later, after a jury of Hunter’s peers found him guilty of three felony firearms offenses, the president again said he would not forgive his son.
“I’m not going to do anything,” Biden said after Hunter was convicted. “I will comply with the jury’s decision“.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton and Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.
