Hunter Biden says his father “chose me over his legacy” when he issued a full and unconditional pardon for his son in December 2024, according to an interview the younger Biden gave to California Gov. Gavin Newsom on his podcast that aired Friday.
“That’s how much you know my dad loves me,” Hunter Biden told Newsom on the podcast. “He chose me over his political legacy.” He acknowledged that the pardon would be “one of the first things that is written about” his father’s presidency.
Hunter Biden had faced sentencing on two separate cases. He was convicted on all three felony gun charges in June 2024 related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018, when prosecutors argued he lied about his drug use. In September 2024, he pleaded guilty to three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses, according to the Department of Justice. He faced potential prison time of up to 17 years on the tax charges and up to 25 years on the gun charges under federal sentencing guidelines.
Then-President Joe Biden had repeatedly pledged not to pardon his son, saying he would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decisions. However, Biden reversed course and signed the pardon on December 1, 2024, just weeks before Hunter Biden’s scheduled sentencing and before the president left office.
In the podcast interview, Hunter Biden explained that his father’s decision changed when Donald Trump was elected to a second term. “My dad said that he wouldn’t give me a pardon and he was absolutely 100% genuine about it,” Hunter Biden said, “but he said it at a moment in time where he thought that he was going to be the next president of the United States and there would be a Justice Department that would treat me fairly.” He said that with Trump’s election and the prospect of a new administration, he would have faced potential political targeting. “I would have been under the supervision of the Bureau of Federal Prisons” and a target for the new administration, he said.
Hunter Biden insisted the pardon would not have occurred under a different Republican administration. “If it was in a Mitt Romney administration, if it was in a John McCain administration, if it was in anybody that was an actual Republican and not a tyrant or a fascist, my dad would not have pardoned me,” he said.
When Joe Biden announced the pardon in December 2024, he stated that “raw politics” had already “infected” his son’s criminal cases and “led to a miscarriage of justice.” The investigation into Hunter Biden began during the first Trump administration, and when Merrick Garland became attorney general during the Biden administration, he kept in place the U.S. attorney who had been investigating the case.
Former first lady Jill Biden has defended the decision. In an interview with NBC’s “TODAY” in late May 2026, she said her husband was not thinking about himself when he made the decision. “The process was not fair to Hunter,” she said. “The current president won, and the Justice Department changed. It became political.”
The pardon has remained a significant point of discussion about the former president’s legacy. A Monmouth University poll conducted in December 2024 found that a majority of Americans—57 percent—said Biden’s pardon of his son made it harder for Democrats to criticize similar actions by Trump, while just 37 percent disagreed.
Sources
- NBC News — Hunter Biden’s interview with Gov. Gavin Newsom on his podcast, his statements about the pardon and his father’s legacy
- AP News — Confirmation of Hunter Biden’s conviction on all three felony gun charges in June 2024
- Department of Justice — Confirmation of Hunter Biden’s guilty plea to three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses in September 2024, and the December 1, 2024 pardon
- The New York Times — Details on sentencing guidelines and potential prison time
- BBC — Information on Biden’s pardon statement and previous pledges not to pardon his son
- Monmouth University — Public opinion polling on the pardon’s impact on Biden’s legacy
