Pardoning a president’s son could be an effort to obstruct justice, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) suggested in 2018.
Schiff’s comment is relevant after President Joe Biden pardoned Hunter Biden for tax and gun violations. The pardon also includes any alleged crimes with which the Justice Department did not charge him.
Many legal experts believe Hunter may have committed Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations, at the very least. Republicans also say Joe Biden benefited from the transactions.
“The Congress ought to know whether the President is using the pardon power to obstruct justice,” Schiff said. “The American people have a right to know.”
Schiff’s statement was delivered on CNN in relation to proposed legislation. The proposal was at the time directed at then-President Donald Trump and his family.
“What exactly would it do?” CNN’s Don Lemon asked.
Schiff explained the intent of the bill:
What it would do is say that in the event the president pardons anyone in an investigation in which the President is a witness, a subject or the target, those investigative files will all be turned over to the Congress. The Congress ought to know whether the President is using the pardon power to obstruct justice. The American people have a right to know. I think it is clearly constitutional. It doesn’t prohibit him from granting a pardon, even a pardon he shouldn’t grant, but it does say that we will be able to at least find out whether the President is using this power to shield himself from liability.
Joe Biden in June Said He “Will Not Pardon” Hunter Biden
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
