Republican senator says Trump should not pardon Hunter Biden

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., says President-elect Trump should not offer Hunter Biden a pardon after he pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in September. 

“I don’t think he should pardon Hunter,” Johnson said in an interview on NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live.”

“I think we need to be very careful about having a dual system of justice where the powerful, or the sons and daughters of the powerful, get off scot-free,” he said.

Johnson and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have spearheaded the Senate GOP’s investigations into President Biden’s son and allegations of corruption surrounding the Biden family. He has often criticized the Biden administration’s Justice Department for purportedly treating Hunter’s alleged crimes with kid gloves, all the while calling the various criminal investigations into Trump politically motivated.

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Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., appears during a campaign event for former President Trump at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on Nov. 1.

While Johnson is opposed to letting Biden off the hook, he did suggest that Trump might commute or otherwise reduce the first son’s sentence as a show of good will and effort to unify the country.

“I could see possibly commuting the sentence, reducing it, and it wouldn’t surprise me if President Trump would do that,” he said. “I would not pardon Hunter. I would certainly not. I wouldn’t scream about commuting his sentence or reducing it in some way, shape or form.”

Hunter was indicted on three felonies and six misdemeanor counts alleging he evaded paying at least $1.4 million in taxes while simultaneously spending money on “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” according to the December 2023 indictment.

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President Biden and his son Hunter Biden hug on stage at the conclusion of the first day of the Democratic National Convention at United Center in Chicago on Aug. 19. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Prosecutors also allege the tax returns Hunter ultimately did file falsely claimed that things like prostitutes, strip club visits, porn website subscriptions and other personal expenses were actually deductible business expenses.

The aim, according to the indictment, was to “evade assessment of taxes to reduce the substantial tax liabilities” that Hunter faced.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has been repeatedly asked whether President Biden might pardon his son before leaving office. Asked again on Thursday, Jean-Pierre said the president still had no intention of doing so.

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Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, arrives at the federal court with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden on the opening day of his trial on criminal gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware on June 3. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

“We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no,” she said.

Trump himself floated the idea of a pardon or commuted sentence for Biden in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt in October.

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“Will you pardon Hunter Biden?” Hewitt asked the former and future president on Oct. 24. 

“I wouldn’t take it off the books,” Trump replied. “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.” 

Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.