Legal analyst Jonathan Turley has weighed in on President Joe Biden pardoning his son, Hunter, after promising the American people he wouldn't.
In a scathing column posted Monday morning for Fox News, Turley said that by doing so, Biden set a standard that's not merely a new low reached but a "subterraneous" precedent for future presidents.
On Sunday night, Biden announced he's handing Hunter a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card for his convicted felonies and any crimes he may have committed over a 10-year period from January 1, 2014, to December 1, 2024, covering anything from the mundane to murder.
Now, a decade's worth of wrongdoing is being buried under "a sweeping pardon and a pack of presidential lies," Turley wrote, cementing the lame-duck president's legacy as a "liar-in-chief."
Biden's decision to use his presidential powers to pardon his own son will be a decision that "lives in infamy," Turley said. "Even among past scandals in the abuse of the pardon power, Biden has done lasting damage not just to his legacy but his office."
The president's maneuver culminates years of lying about his knowledge and involvement in the influence-peddling scandal surrounding the Biden family, Turley remarked.
For years, Biden lied to cover up a corruption scandal that reportedly raked in millions for his family.
On the 2020 campaign trail and throughout his presidential term, Biden repeatedly lied "with an ease and impunity that shocked even many political veterans in Washington," noted Turley. When asked if he knew about Hunter's international business dealings, including with foreign adversaries, Biden claimed he was not aware of anything incriminating, though there exist records of meetings with these clients. Hunter himself was thanked for arranging such access to his father.
Then, the press questioned whether he would pardon Hunter. While running for reelection, before he was booted off the ballot by his own party, Biden again adamantly denied that a pardon would occur or even be contemplated.
In an article for The Hill, also on Monday, Turley said he sensed that Hunter, an Ivy League-educated attorney, knew he had a pocket pardon all along or otherwise he wouldn't have attempted "ridiculous" and "ultimately unsuccessfully" criminal defense strategies.
For example, Hunter taunting Congress was not the action of someone who feared consequences of these investigations, he said. Hunter "took nothing but three-point shots without any apparent concerns over the risks that he was taking," Turley further assessed.
Turley previously believed Hunter seemed to be engaged in what he described as a "game of chicken with himself."
However, the Hunter Biden pardon might not achieve complete immunity from prosecution as the president may have hoped for, a clean slate for his son and himself, Turley caveated.
Hunter could still be called to testify before Congress or with investigators on the influence-peddling efforts. If he commits perjury, it will be a new crime subject to prosecution, Turley explained, and he could not count on the pardon as an insurance policy.
Short of such continued probes into the sprawling operation, "the Bidens will have achieved something that would have made John Gotti blush," Turley quipped. "The only thing greater than their appetite was their sheer audacity."
Nonetheless, what it does achieve is "the final and total corruption of the Biden presidency," Turley countered.
Turley added it signifies the total corruption of the media, given many responding "with the usual uncomfortable shrug despite the litany of lies." Measured by "Biden ethics," in the world of Joe Biden, "a lie that no one believes is treated the same as the truth," Turley said. "Biden has become the very embodiment of our post-truth politics where identity rather than veracity drives meaning," he continued.
While widely anticipated, Hunter's pardoning "may be the single most premeditated unethical act in political history," a final "show of contempt for the American people," Turley chastised.
During his final days in the White House, "Biden shredded any residue of veracity and credibility as president," Turley concluded.
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