‘A press release is not a pardon’: Judge shreds Biden’s Hunter move, says he can’t ‘rewrite history’

Trump-appointed Judge Mark C. Scarsi ripped into President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden on Tuesday in a filing, saying that while the president has broad authority, he cannot “rewrite history.”

Biden released a statement Sunday evening announcing his pardon of Hunter Biden’s cases, claiming that any “reasonable” person reviewing the facts in the case would conclude that his son was being targeted because of his connection to the president. In a filing on Tuesday evening, Scarsi, who presided over Hunter’s federal tax case in California, criticized the president for misrepresenting the facts in his statement.

“According to the President, ‘[n]o reasonable person who looks at the facts of [Mr. Biden’s] cases can reach any other conclusion than [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 familial relation to the President,” Scarsi wrote.

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U.S. district court judge takes issue with Biden’s claim in his pardon that no reasonable person looking at the case could reach any conclusion other than that Hunter was targeted because he is the POTUS’s son, noting that federal judges & Biden’s own DOJ rejected that argument. pic.twitter.com/vdxX9YDXyr

— Jerry Dunleavy IV (@JerryDunleavy) December 4, 2024

“And the President’s own Attorney General and Department of Justice personnel oversaw the investigation leading to the charges. In the President’s estimation, this legion of federal civil servants, the undersigned included, are unreasonable people,” Scarsi said. “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.”

In September, Hunter pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in his California case after he allegedly failed to pay an estimated $1.4 million in taxes and filed falsified tax paperwork. While Scarsi had initially accepted the plea and scheduled Hunter’s sentencing for Dec. 16, he stated in his recent ruling that he would vacate the sentencing hearing but would not terminate the case until the pardon is formally signed by Biden.

Since Biden’s announcement to pardon his son, the president has faced major backlash from pundits and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle due to his and his staff’s repeated denials that he would pardon Hunter.

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