Former first lady Jill Biden said in a new interview that she supported former President Joe Biden’s decision to issue a sweeping pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, arguing that the legal process involving the former first son was unfair, as reported by the New York Post.
Speaking with CBS News “Sunday Morning” ahead of the release of her memoir, “View from the East Wing,” Jill Biden said she believed circumstances changed after President Donald Trump won the 2024 election.
“The Justice Department changed, and the process was not fair to Hunter,” Jill Biden told CBS News “Sunday Morning.”
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“When Trump was elected, things changed,” she went on, “and we knew that he would target Hunter. And we just could not let our son go to jail on a charge that no one would go — I mean, no one has ever gone to jail for.”
Asked whether she urged her husband to pardon Hunter Biden, Jill Biden said she fully supported the decision.
“Oh gosh, I truly supported it. I wanted him to pardon Hunter at that point, and I agreed with Joe,” she said.
Hunter Biden, now 56, was convicted in Delaware on June 11, 2024, on three counts related to lying about his drug use when purchasing a firearm in 2018. In September 2024, he pleaded guilty in federal court in Los Angeles to charges related to failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes.
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The prosecutions were handled by former Special Counsel David Weiss, who was appointed during Joe Biden’s administration. The charges followed the collapse of a plea agreement reached in June 2023.
That agreement would have resulted in probation rather than prison time, but negotiations fell apart after Hunter Biden’s attorneys sought immunity for potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The issue became a major political controversy during Joe Biden’s presidency. Around the same time, IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler alleged that the Justice Department had taken steps that benefited Hunter Biden during the investigation.
Among their claims were allegations that prosecutors warned Hunter Biden’s legal team about a planned search and restricted investigative avenues involving Joe Biden’s connections to his son’s overseas business activities.
Jill Biden’s comments also addressed criticism surrounding the firearm conviction. While she argued that people do not typically receive prison sentences for such offenses, the article noted that rapper Kodak Black received a 46-month prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2019 to providing an incorrect Social Security number on a federal firearm purchase form.
Despite repeated public statements from the White House that Joe Biden would not pardon his son, the former president issued a broad pardon on Dec. 1, 2024.
The pardon covered offenses committed between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024, including crimes for which Hunter Biden had not been charged.
Before leaving office on Jan. 20, 2025, Joe Biden also issued preemptive pardons for members of his family, including his brothers James and Frank Biden, his sister Valerie Biden Owens, and their spouses.
Jill Biden said those pardons were issued because her husband believed family members could face future scrutiny.
“I suppose for the same reason, that he felt that they would be targeted,” she said.
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"When Trump was elected, things changed... We knew he would target Hunter.” pic.twitter.com/QsetinGvlr— Mr Producer (@RichSementa) May 31, 2026
James Biden had previously faced scrutiny from House Republicans, who examined financial records showing he sent $240,000 to Joe Biden in 2017 and 2018. James Biden said the payments were repayments of personal loans.
Republican lawmakers later accused him of misleading Congress and called for criminal charges while also raising questions about whether some business dealings involved unregistered foreign lobbying.
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