President Joe Biden is sticking to his June pledge not to pardon his son, his press secretary said Thursday, after Hunter Biden submitted a surprise plea that would accept responsibility for tax evasion and other tax crimes.
“No,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked aboard Air Force One if Biden would reconsider his vow. “It’s still no.”
Jean-Pierre also said the president would not seek to commute his son’s sentence prior to leaving office in January.
The decision comes as Hunter Biden awaits sentencing after a jury convicted him on three felony gun charges in June, and amid his last-minute efforts to avoid a second trial over allegations he committed a series of tax crimes.
That trial was due to begin Thursday in Los Angeles. But moments before it started, Biden’s attorneys told the judge that they would enter an Alford plea, in which he would maintain innocence but acknowledge that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him.
The judge in Biden’s tax case has not yet accepted the proposed plea. Doing so would avert another trial that was set to weigh on the president and cast a shadow over his last weeks ahead of November's election.
Though the case is considered far less of a political liability for Democrats now that Biden has abandoned his reelection bid, it still represented a potential distraction during a stretch run that the president hopes to use to secure his legacy and bolster Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.
Jean-Pierre would not say whether Biden was aware beforehand that Hunter Biden planned to alter his plea.
Courts treat Alford pleas the same as guilty pleas, meaning Biden could face prison time in addition to the 25-year maximum linked to his conviction on the gun charges earlier this year.
Biden first pledged not to pardon Hunter over the summer, saying he was “satisfied” that the trial had been fair.
“I am not going to do anything,” he said on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy. “I will abide by the jury’s decision.”
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