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Ex-Biden adviser turns on him, slams Hunter pardon as ‘attack on the judicial system’

December 12, 2024 | | Print Article

Among the many voices who criticized President Joe Biden for pardoning his son, Hunter Biden was one of his longtime allies.

Former Biden senior advisor Anita Dunn agreed with the idea of the lame-duck president wiping the slate clean for his ex-addict son, but she had a different take on ” the way it was done.”

Dunn, who resigned her White House position in July, called out the pardon as “an attack on the judicial system” as she spoke at the New York Times’ annual DealBook Summit. The event was moderated by Maggie Haberman and the panel that included Dunn also featured Kellyanne Conway, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, CNN’s Van Jones, and ABC News’ Jonathan Karl.

“Why did it cover such an expansive time period, and how long has President Biden actually been considering it?” Haberman asked Dunn about the president’s pardon of his son.

Dunn began by defending Hunter Biden and how he has “been held accountable” in the aftermath of his crimes and addiction.

“I can only say that I don’t speak for President Biden any longer and was not party to the conversations that were held about this. But let me just start by saying that I do not believe and I don’t think most people believe that Hunter Biden should go to jail and that, you know, he had a serious addiction, that he broke the law, that he has pled guilty to, that that he has been held accountable and has actually been publicly pilloried in a way that very few people who commit these crimes have ever been pilloried,” Dunn said.

“So he has paid a certain price. He’s also someone who has turned his life around, who has been sober now since 2019, who has a young child and is actually going to be a grandfather sometime next year,” she continued.

“And had this pardon been done at the end of the term, in the context of compassion, the way many pardons will be done, I am sure, and many commutations will be done, I think would have been a different story. So I will say I absolutely agree with the president’s decision here,” Dunn added before noting her qualifier.

“I do not agree with the way it was done. I don’t agree with the timing and I don’t agree, frankly, with the attack on our judicial system,” she stated.

The president surprised even those in his own party who have criticized him for issuing the sweeping pardon that covers 10 years. Biden contended that the so-called weaponization of the judicial system ended up “selectively, and unfairly” investigating his son.

“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” the president said in a statement following the move.

“You say a little bit more about that in terms of the attack on the judicial system, because that was what was most striking to people who criticize this pardon,” Haberman interjected.

“So, you know, Maggie, as I say, I agree with the decision to pardon. I absolutely think that Hunter deserves a pardon here. But I disagreed on the timing. The argument and sort of the rationale,” Biden’s former top aide replied.

Dunn’s argument that Biden’s Justice Department wasn’t politicized to go after former President Trump was called out during the panel discussion by senior Trump advisor Jason Miller.

“Respectfully, Anita did you miss the last four years? Did you miss the illegal raid on Mar-a-Lago?” he asked after her remarks.

Frieda Powers
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