Jef­fries wants Biden to dole out par­dons for peo­ple aggres­sive­ly pros­e­cut­ed ‘for non­vi­o­lent offens­es’

On the heels of Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s move to issue a sweep­ing par­don for his son Hunter Biden, House Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader Hakeem Jef­fries, D‑N.Y., issued a state­ment sug­gest­ing the pres­i­dent should issue par­dons for indi­vid­u­als who faced “aggres­sive pros­e­cu­tions for non­vi­o­lent offens­es.”

“Through­out his life, Pres­i­dent Joe Biden has fought to improve the plight of hard­work­ing Amer­i­cans strug­gling to live pay­check to pay­check,” Jef­fries said in the state­ment. “Many of these peo­ple have been aggres­sive­ly pros­e­cut­ed and harsh­ly sen­tenced for non­vi­o­lent offens­es, often with­out the ben­e­fit of ade­quate legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Count­less lives, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties have been adverse­ly impact­ed, par­tic­u­lar­ly in parts of Appalachia, Urban Amer­i­ca and the Heart­land.

“Dur­ing his final weeks in office, Pres­i­dent Biden should exer­cise the high lev­el of com­pas­sion he has con­sis­tent­ly demon­strat­ed through­out his life, includ­ing toward his son, and par­don on a case-by-case basis the work­ing-class Amer­i­cans in the fed­er­al prison sys­tem whose lives have been ruined by unjust­ly aggres­sive pros­e­cu­tions for non­vi­o­lent offens­es,” Jef­fries con­tin­ued.

“This moment calls for lib­er­ty and jus­tice for all,” he con­clud­ed.

REPUBLICANS HAMMER BIDEN’S ‘NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW’ CLAIM FOLLOWING HUNTER PARDON: ‘AGED LIKE FINE MILK’

The pres­i­den­t’s par­don of Hunter Biden cov­ers more than a decade.

The “Full and Uncon­di­tion­al Par­don” cov­ers “those offens­es against the Unit­ed States which he has com­mit­ted or may have com­mit­ted or tak­en part in dur­ing the peri­od from Jan­u­ary 1, 2014 through Decem­ber 1, 2024 … ”

Biden has earned blow­back, includ­ing from some mem­bers of his own par­ty.

‘IT’S A SETBACK’: DEMOCRATS CRITICIZE BIDEN OVER HUNTER PARDON

Sen. Michael Ben­net, D‑Colo., assert­ed in a post on X that the pres­i­den­t’s move “put per­son­al inter­est ahead of duty and fur­ther erodes Amer­i­cans’ faith that the jus­tice sys­tem is fair and equal for all.”

Col­orado Gov. Jared Polis said that the par­don would sul­ly the pres­i­den­t’s rep­u­ta­tion.

DEM REP. DEAN PHILLIPS BLASTS BIDEN AFTER HUNTER PARDON, SAYS SOME PEOPLE ‘ARE INDEED ABOVE THE LAW’

“While as a father I cer­tain­ly under­stand Pres­i­dent @JoeBiden’s nat­ur­al desire to help his son by par­don­ing him, I am dis­ap­point­ed that he put his fam­i­ly ahead of the coun­try. This is a bad prece­dent that could be abused by lat­er Pres­i­dents and will sad­ly tar­nish his rep­u­ta­tion,” the Demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nor opined in a tweet.