Some Democrats fear that Trump will use the pardon to criticize the justice system and bolster his own efforts to remake it.

Republicans called President Joe Biden a “liar” for pardoning his son, who was convicted on gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax fraud this summer. The decision comes after the president said that he would "abide by the jury's decision" in an interview ahead of his son's conviction in June,

The White House had said repeatedly that Biden would not pardon or commute sentences for Hunter, a recovering drug addict who became a target of Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump. "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,

President Joe Biden’s decision to go back on his word and pardon his son Hunter wasn’t all that surprising to those who are familiar with the president’s devotion to his family

Lawmakers in the president’s own party, many of them moderates, said his decision to pardon his son was selfish and would further damage Americans’ waning faith in democracy and the rule of law.

President Joe Biden’s public justification of his decision to pardon his son — accusing the Justice Department of political targeting — threatens to undermine the image he carefully cultivated through decades in politics as an honest broker whose principal loyalty was to protecting the sanctity of critical US institutions.