President-elect Donald Trump taunted President Joe Biden for pardoning his son Hunter, asking if the pardon includes his supporters serving prison terms for participating in the January 6 riots when Congress was attacked
In a post on Truth Social on Sunday night. he called the pardon "such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice"!
Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years," he asked using a shorthand for the January 6, 2021 riots.
After Trump held a rally claiming he had won the 2020 election and it was "stolen" from him, some of his supporters invaded the Capitol threatening then-Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress as they were certifying Biden's election.
Trump has referred to those rioters who were found guilty as political prisoners and "hostages" whom he argues were wrongly prosecuted and for whom he has said that he would pardon them.
Trump himself had indicated his willingness to pardon Hunter Biden "despite what they've done to me, where they've gone after me so viciously, despite what, and Hunter's a bad boy".
In an effort to put behind him a sordid family case as he exits office, Biden pardoned his son Hunter who had been convicted of gun and tax evasion charges, thus saving him from the possibility of serving prison sentences.
In making the pardon announcement, Biden said that "raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice" in his son's case.
"The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election," he said.
Biden's assertions that his son was subjected to selective prosecution due to political pressures mirror Trump's claims that he was brought to trial and convicted due to political reasons by prosecutors who weaponized the system of justice.
According to the president, those committing similar offences as his son were not prosecuted unless there were other circumstances or were given non-criminal deals.
Politically motivated selective prosecution, as Trump and his defenders also argued, was what formed the basis of both convictions of the former president in New York.
In campaigning the 34 criminal convictions were from the Democrats and were for making incorrect labeling of payments on his account books and turning each cheque into separate crimes.
He was fined US$354 million in civil case when he was found to have overstated his net worth in seeking loans from banks, though these were repaid and without complaints from the banks themselves. He was prosecuted by elected Democratic Party prosecutors on both cases.
Before the announcement by Biden, a Representative from his party, Jamie Raskin cited Trump's claims to make the case for Hunter Biden.
There's a defence called selective prosecution if you can demonstrate that the government has a set of cases that all appear alike, but they select one person to prosecute on account, say, of political animus against the person, which essentially is the claim that Donald Trump has been making about why he was targeted," he said.
Without referring to a pardon by Biden, Trump's Spokesperson Steven Cheung said, "The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponising the justice system."
"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," he said.
Other Republicans piled on, attacking the pardon.
Senator John Barrasso wrote on X, "This tonight's pardon is wrong. It proves to the American people that there is a two-tier system of justice".
Rep. Wesley Hunt posted, "Joe Biden just did the thing he told us he would never do, PARDONING his son for crimes he and the majority of the media told us he never committed.
And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Truth Social, "This pardon is Joe Biden's confession that Hunter is a criminal."
She continued by stating Biden's "FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and DOJ (Department of Justice) raided Barron's bedroom and Melania's closet at Mar-a-Lago referring to the president's son and wife.
Biden claimed earlier that "I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision," referring to pardoning his son.
Senator Tom Cotton conceded in his X post, "Most Americans can sympathise with a father's decision to pardon his son, even if they disagree", but he added, "What they can't forgive is Biden lying about it repeatedly before the election."
In fact, Hunter Biden played the centerpiece of Trump's first impeachment. In this impeachment process, Trump was accused of threatening Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, who is believed to have the role of investigating the company irregularities in the case of Hunter Biden. Actually, a Ukrainian gas company has appointed Hunter Biden to become its director. Still, he had no prior experience in the energy area with monthly payments.
While the House of Representatives impeached Trump, the Senate did not convict him.
Read also| US Retailers Leverage Trump Tariff Threats to Encourage Increased Spending: Report
Read also| Trump Cabinet Nominees Faced with Bomb Threats and Intimidation
