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hunter biden
To Thwart Trump Killing Spree, Biden Urged to Commute Death Penalty Cases
The former president, warned a broad rights coalition, "executed more people than the previous ten administrations combined."
Dec 09, 2024
A large and diverse coalition of broad coalition of rights organizations on Monday sent a letter to U.S. President Biden Monday, urging him to commute the sentences of all 40 individuals who are on federal death row.
The letter adds to a chorus of voices—including prosecutors and law enforcement officials—advocating for Biden to use his clemency powers to issue such commutations before he departs office.
The calls for Biden to issue pardons and commutations have only grown since the president issued a pardon for his son, clearing Hunter Biden of wrongdoing in any federal crimes he committed or may have committed in the last 11 years.
The joint letter to Biden was backed by over 130 organizations, including the ACLU, Brennan Center for Justice, and The Sentencing Project, commends his administration's "actions to repudiate capital punishment, including imposing a moratorium on executions for those sentenced to death, and for publicly calling for an end to the use of the death penalty during your 2020 campaign. In the face of a second Trump administration, more is necessary."
"President Trump executed more people than the previous ten administrations combined. Of those he executed, over half were people of color: six Black men and one Native American. The only irreversible action you can take to prevent President-elect Trump from renewing his execution spree, as he has vowed to do, is commuting the death sentences of those on federal death row now," the letter states.
The letter cites additional reasons that Biden ought to commute the sentences, including that the death penalty "has been rooted in slavery, lynchings, and white vigilantism."
A separate letter to Biden—sent in November by group of attorneys general, law enforcement officials, and others—argues that "condemning people to death by the state does not advance public safety. The death penalty fails as an effective deterrent and does not reduce crime. As an outdated, error-riddled, and racially-biased practice, its continued use—and the potential for its abuse—erodes public trust in the criminal legal system and undermines the legitimacy of the entire criminal legal system."
Matt Bruenig, president of the People's Policy Project think tank, directly tied Biden's inaction on this issue to the pardon he issued for his son in a blog post last week, writing that "if Biden does not act, there is little doubt that Trump will aggressively schedule executions in his next term. Their blood will primarily be on Trump's hands, but, if Biden does not act to prevent it, his hands will be bloody too."
The call for commutations for death row prisoners aligns with a wider push for the President to use his clemency powers before he leaves office.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), who has been particularly vocal on this issue, said Sunday on social media that President Biden "must use his clemency power to change lives for the better. And we have some ideas on who he can target: Folks in custody with unjustified sentencing disparities, the elderly and chronically ill, people on death row, women punished for crimes of their abusers, and more."
Pressley was one of over 60 members of Congress who sent a letter to Biden last month, encouraging Biden to intervene to help these groups.
Several lawmakers have specific pardons or commutations in mind, according to Axios. For example, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has urged Biden to pardon Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has called for a pardon of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, per Axios.
So far, Biden has granted far fewer clemency petitions (161 total) than former President Barrack Obama, according to the Department of Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney, and a few dozen less than President-elect Trump did during his entire first presidency. However, in 2022, Biden did grant full and unconditional pardons to all U.S. citizens convicted of simple federal marijuana possession—a move that was cheered by advocates.
According to The New York Times, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week that Biden was expected to make more clemency announcements "at the end of his term."
"He's thinking through that process very thoroughly," she said.
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'I Hope Americans Will Understand': Biden Pardons His Son Hunter
"No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases," said the president, "can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong."
Dec 01, 2024
President Joe Biden on Sunday evening issued a full and unconditional pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, saying that he was "selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted" for political purposes and because of his relationship to his father.
The charges in Hunter's criminal cases, said Biden in a White House statement, "came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election."
According to the statement:
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. 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.
In September of this year, the younger Biden was convicted on three felony tax offenses as well as six misdemeanor violations of the tax code. Earlier in the year, he was found guilty on three felony gun-related charges having to do with how he filled out a gun ownership registration.
Hunter has admitted to struggling with addiction and largely taken responsibility for his actions in those criminal cases, though he fought against the criminal convictions in court.
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'Playing Political Games,' GOP Tees Up Vote on Biden Impeachment Probe
The House Rules Committee ranking member said that "Americans will see that this impeachment sham is a national disgrace, designed by extreme Republicans to distract from their incompetence and help Donald Trump."
Dec 12, 2023
Republicans on the U.S. House Rules Committee voted 9-4 Tuesday to advance a resolution that would formalize the GOP's ongoing impeachment inquiry into Democratic President Joe Biden.
House Resolution 918, introduced last week by Congressman Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), directs the chamber's Oversight and Accountability, Ways and Means, and Judiciary committees to continue ongoing probes of alleged misconduct by the president related to his son Hunter Biden's business dealings and legal issues.
Although the GOP has failed to uncover any proof of presdential misconduct—which some Republican lawmakers are openly admitting—party leadership is plowing ahead. According to The Hill, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said that a floor vote on the resolution is expected Wednesday.
"Rather than tackling the real issues facing the American people, Republicans are playing political games with our nation's most serious checks and balances."
"Let's be clear: This impeachment inquiry is nothing more than a political stunt, and it sets a terrible precedent for our democracy," Sean Eldridge, founder and president of the progressive group Stand Up America, said in a statement after the committee vote.
"Despite months of posturing, House Republicans haven't provided a shred of evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden," he stressed. "Rather than tackling the real issues facing the American people, Republicans are playing political games with our nation's most serious checks and balances."
Eldridge added that "members of the House of Representatives still have a chance to do the right thing and vote against this sham inquiry when it hits the House floor. Voters will be watching to see if their representatives put political stunts ahead of the American people."
The president is seeking reelection next year. The GOP's current 2024 front-runner is former President Donald Trump, who after the 2020 election led an unsuccessful effort to prevent the peaceful transfer of power despite his loss to Biden.
House Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) declared Tuesday that "Americans will see that this impeachment sham is a national disgrace, designed by extreme Republicans to distract from their incompetence and help Donald Trump. This is about vengeance, retaliation, distraction, and denial."
After Armstrong unveiled his resolution last week, House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) similarly charged that "everyone knows that the floundering Biden impeachment probe is designed to give Donald Trump something to say when it's pointed out he has been twice impeached and is a proven fraudster, sexual assailant, and defamer of women who now faces 91 felony charges in federal and state court."
NBC News reported Tuesday that Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign's communications director, also pushed back against the impeachment inquiry in a new memo, pointing to Trump's remark last week that he would be a dictator only on "day one."
"The only branch of government MAGA Republicans control is following through on Donald Trump's promise to use the levers of government to enact political retribution on his enemies," Tyler said. "You know, like the followers of a dictator."
"Instead of trying to deliver results for the American people," he added, "Trump's MAGA followers in the House are using their power to pursue an evidence-free impeachment sham all to help Trump's 2024 campaign."
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