(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Outgoing President Joe Biden may have pardoned his son, Hunter Biden—but that hasn’t stopped Justice Department prosecutors from continuing their case against him.
In a motion filed Monday, the DOJ opposed Hunter’s motion to dismiss the indictment against him, arguing that a pardon doesn’t require that the indictment be dismissed.
“As a matter of past-practice in this district, courts do not dismiss indictments when pardons are granted,” prosecutors said in their motion.
“Rather, in each of the most recent cases where pardons have been granted by former President Obama and former President Trump, the United States District Court for the Central District of California has not dismissed the indictment,” they said.
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“Instead, it has been the practice of this court that once an Executive Grant of Clemency has been filed on the docket, the docket is marked closed, the disposition entry is updated to reflect the executive grant of clemency, and no further action is taken by the Court.”
The DOJ explained that the reason pardons don’t lead to the expungement of an indictment.
“A pardon is an act of grace, proceeding from the power intrusted with the execution of the laws, which exempts the individual on whom it is bestowed, from the punishment the law inflicts for a crime he has committed,” prosecutors said, citing former Chief Justice John Marshall.
The DOJ cited the time when Donald Trump pardoned Steve Bannon as a case where a pardon didn’t lead to the expungement of an indictment.
President Biden’s pardon followed Hunter’s guilty plea to nine counts of tax crimes. He was previously convicted of three counts of making false statements on a federal gun purchase form. He is expected to be sentenced later this month.
The indictments followed years of investigation by Special Counsel David Weiss, which Republicans alleged was intentionally delayed allowing the statute of limitations to expire on certain offenses. Biden’s pardon stretches back to 2014.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.