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‘Never Seen Anything Like This’: Jonathan Turley Says Language Of Hunter Biden Pardon Is ‘Unprecedented’

[Screenshot/Fox News]

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Monday the language in President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter, is historically “unprecedented.”

Biden formally issued a “full and unconditional pardon” for Hunter regarding any crime he is charged of or may have committed since 2014, including any potential charges regarding an alleged influence peddling-scheme during his time on a now-defunct Ukrainian gas company’s board. Turley told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum that there has never been any language resembling Biden’s pardon seen in previous pardons which showed a “breathtaking act of contempt for the American people.”

“The language of this pardon is virtually unprecedented,” Turley said. “I mean, [former President Richard] Nixon was very, very broad. But we’ve never seen anything like this. [Biden is] literally pardoning his son for any crime that he may have committed during these years. Everything from money laundering to murder. Now he could be charged with state offenses, but the statutes of limitations have largely run on those offenses. So it’s a really breathtaking act of contempt for the American people and it has happened over and over again.”

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The president granted a pardon for “all offenses charged or prosecuted” against Hunter between Jan. 1, 2014 and Dec. 1, 2024, which includes any possible crimes committed in his overseas business dealings, along with his gun and tax charges, according to a Sunday statement announcing the pardon.

A Delaware jury convicted Hunter in June on three felony charges over his 2018 purchase of a gun while knowingly under the influence of drugs and for filling out false information on the purchase form. He also faced up to 17 years in prison in relation to nine charges over his alleged failure to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019.

Since Hunter’s conviction, Biden and the White House repeatedly vowed that he would not receive a pardon from his father. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on a flight Monday that she and the president did not lie to Americans about Hunter’s pardoning and assured that Biden believes in the Justice Department despite him claiming that the investigations into his son were politically motivated.

Biden said in his Sunday statement that his son was “singled out” by his political opponents, and argued that almost no one is prosecuted for filling out false information on a gun purchase form or for being late to paying their taxes after they paid back what they owed.

“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong,” Biden said. “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. 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.”

“For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision,” the statement continued.