The White House was forced to confront sharp comments Thursday from a trusted former aide to President Biden who questioned the way he pardoned his son Hunter.
Anita Dunn, whose counsel was so valuable to Biden that she advised for two stints and was the first top aide to leave after he stepped aside for Kamala Harris’ handover, delivered the harshest dose of criticism of her former boss at a post-election summit elections. .
That made for an awkward period when White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked to defend the fire from the tent, one day Biden pardoned 39 people and commuted the sentences of 1,500 people – a group of non-violent offenders including a string of convicted fraudsters.
“I absolutely agree with the president’s decision on this point. I don’t agree with the way it was done,” Dunn said at a New York Times/DealBook event posted online Wednesday. “I don’t agree with the timing, and frankly I don’t agree with the attack on our justice system.”
“If this pardon had been granted at the end of this semester in the context of compassion, as many pardons will be done, then I’m sure — and there will be a lot of commutations made — then I think it would be a different story been,” she said. .
Dunn also criticized the strategic aspects of the timing, which undermined Democratic efforts to target Donald Trump’s FBI pick Kash Patel, who has vowed to go after the “deep state” and printed a list of enemies in his book .
“In the middle of a Kash Patel weekend, it was exceptionally bad timing to throw this in the middle and… the argument is one that I think many observers are concerned about: a president who ran to restore the rule of law, who has upheld the rule of law, who has actually defended the rule of law by saying, “Well, maybe not right now,” Dunn said.
That comment focused on Biden’s claim that his son faced political persecution — essentially mirroring Donald Trump’s attacks on the justice system to help his son by justifying the pardon.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was forced to confront criticism of Hunter Biden from Anita Dunn, a close former adviser to the president
“I will respond this way. She also agreed that Hunter Biden, and I quote, absolutely deserves a pardon,” Jean-Pierre responded when asked about it during her briefing Thursday. “So she supported that action.”
She then immediately turned to Biden’s moves “that produced the most individual commutations, and I think that matters,” she said.
As it played out, Biden issued Hunter Biden’s blanket pardon on taxes and gun charges just before he left on a trip to Africa, without answering questions about the controversial move in a sustained manner.
President-elect Donald Trump immediately used the move to renew his call to pardon the January 6 offenders. He has since said he will review each case and pardon some of them within minutes of taking the oath of office.
Jean-Pierre’s comments came during a briefing where she did not rule out Biden offering “preemptive pardons” to officials Donald Trump considers political enemies, such as Hillary Clinton and former lawmaker Liz Cheney.
That follows reports that such pardons are on the table as a way to protect people who may be prosecuted by Trump.
Trump has said Cheney, who supported Kamala Harris after helping the Jan. 6 House committee, should be in jail. She voted in the House of Representatives to impeach Trump.
“It would be a bad move for me if I got ahead of the president or gave a preview of something that the president was considering, and so this is something he’s going to talk to his team about and I don’t have anything else. for you,” Jean-Pierre said.
Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter shortly before he went on a trip to Africa. He claimed Hunter had been singled out for prosecution in a statement criticizing the Justice Department
She had to repeatedly answer questions about Hunter Biden’s pardon, on a day when the White House announced 39 pardons and 1,500 commutations.
These 1,500 were all identified as violent offenders who were sent to home confinement during the pandemic, although some were convicted of crimes ranging from possession with intent to distribute drugs to Medicare fraud.
“They have been successfully integrated into their families, into their communities,” she said of those who received lump sum payments.
She also declined to delve into the process of who got on the list and how, or even whether Biden read a file from each. “What I can say is this president made this decision,” she said.