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President-elect Donald Trump hinted at mass pardons for his supporters who were either convicted or are still facing trials in relation to the January 6, 2021, United States Capitol insurrection after President Joe Biden pardoned his own son, Hunter, Sunday (December 1) night.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
Trump had previously suggested potential pardons for the more than 1,500 defendants accused of breaching the U.S. Capitol as Congress voted to certify his 2020 election loss to Biden. The President-elect's transition team shared a statement blasting the Justice Department, though not specifically mentioning Joe or Hunter Biden, following the pardon Sunday night.
“The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement obtained by the New York Post. “That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people.”
Hunter Biden, 54, was scheduled to be sentenced on separate federal gun and tax evasion cases later this month after pleading guilty in September to nine counts of evading the government of $1.4 million in taxes and being convicted of three federal gun charges for possessing a firearm while addicted to crack cocaine in June. President Biden, 82, argued that his son was "selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted" in a pardon that covered all of his son's offenses between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024, despite previously claiming he wouldn't take action to help Hunter during the G7 summit in June.
“There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution," President Biden said in a statement obtained by the New York Post Sunday night. "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.”