Trump says he’d be open to pardoning Hunter Biden: ‘I wouldn’t take it off the books’
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he wouldn’t rule out pardoning convicted first son Hunter Biden — assuming his incumbent father doesn’t do so first.
“I wouldn’t take it off the books,” the Republican nominee, 78, told syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt during an interview after previously declining to say whether he would grant clemency to Hunter, 54.
“See, unlike Joe Biden, despite what they’ve done to me, where they’ve gone after me so viciously, despite what — and Hunter’s a bad boy. There’s no question about it. He’s been a bad boy. All you had to do is see the laptop from hell — but I happen to think it’s very bad for our country,” Trump said.
The former president then spoke about his relationship with former rival Hillary Clinton, saying he could have put her behind bars if he wanted to after defeating her in the 2016 election.
“I could have gone after Hillary. I could have gotten Hillary Clinton very easily. And when they say lock her up, whenever they said ‘lock her,’ you know, they’d start, 30,000 people, ‘lock her up, lock her up.’ What did I do? I always say take it easy, just relax. We’re winning. Take it easy. Take it easy.”
He added: “I could have had her put in jail. And I decided I didn’t want to do that. I thought it would look terrible. You had the wife of the president of the United States going to jail. I thought it would be very bad if we did that. And I made sure that didn’t happen, OK? I thought it would be bad.”
Hunter Biden was convicted in June of three federal felonies relating to lying about using drugs while in possession of a gun.
He is facing 25 years in prison, but will likely be handed a lighter sentence because he has no prior convictions.
President Biden’s son also pleaded guilty in September to dodging $1.4 million in federal taxes, and faces up to 17 years in prison on those charges.
Biden, 81, has previously said he would not pardon his son — however, he is widely expected to change his mind or commute Hunter’s sentence before he leaves office on Jan. 20, 2025.
