Sean Penn is defending President Joe Biden, who issued a sweeping pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, for more than a decade’s worth of crimes despite repeatedly promising he wouldn’t.
The activist actor, who is a friend of Hunter’s, attributed Biden’s pardon to Donald Trump’s re-election and spoke highly of Hunter’s character.
“I do not believe that Joe Biden, had he won the presidency, would have pardoned his son,” Penn told Variety. “I don’t think it was a lie; I think it was a change of mind and circumstance.”
The Hollywood star also said he was “proud” of Biden’s decision. “Any father that didn’t do that would have been remiss,” Penn told the outlet. “I don’t know if I want to have a beer with somebody who wouldn’t have pardoned Hunter Biden, being their son.”
The actor also said he hopes to see more presidential pardons during Biden’s remaining time as president.
“It ain’t January yet,” he said. “[So] I hope that it is also in President Biden’s intentions to [offer] an ongoing concerted focus on people who have been wrongfully charged, overcharged, where the extenuating circumstances have not been fairly considered, and that there will be many more pardons that are better for the world than leaving people to toil in prison.”
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Penn went on to call Hunter “one of the finest people I know.”
“This is a guy who has taken on the most severe addiction, and has so much to offer people who are suffering or families who are suffering through that,” he added. “I’m glad that the possibility is there now that he’ll have the time and space to be able to offer that support to people, which I know is what he wants to do.”
Biden became the first president in history to pardon his own child. Hunter had previously been convicted on three felony counts of lying on paperwork for the purchase of a revolver and owning the firearm while being a drug addict in 2018.
Hunter also pleaded guilty to several federal charges related to tax crimes right before a second trial was to begin in Los Angeles, as The Daily Wire previously reported. He was expected to be sentenced for gun and tax evasion crimes later in December and could have been sent to prison.
The pardon covered any and all crimes Hunter “committed or may have committed” for an 11-year period dating back to 2014. The move is being criticized by Republicans and many Democrats, with plenty of prominent figures citing it as another example of corruption in the Biden family.