Who else might Biden par­don after he spared Hunter from sen­tenc­ing?

Pres­i­dent Biden par­doned son Hunter Biden Sun­day after repeat­ed­ly vow­ing he would not spare him from sen­tenc­ing in a pair of sep­a­rate fed­er­al court cas­es. 

Biden has just under 47 days remain­ing in the Oval Office before Pres­i­dent-elect Trump’s inau­gu­ra­tion as the 47th pres­i­dent. 

As Biden’s term comes to an end, a hand­ful of elect­ed offi­cials and oth­ers have called on the pres­i­dent to issue par­dons for oth­er Amer­i­cans, includ­ing the sug­ges­tion of “pre­emp­tive par­dons” for Democ­rats ahead of Trump’s sec­ond term. 

HUNTER BIDEN PARDON WILL UNDERMINE PARTY’S ‘SELF-PROCLAIMED AUTHORITY’ ON RULE OF LAW: DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST

Mass­a­chu­setts Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen. Ed Markey claimed after the elec­tion he expects Trump to act in a “fascis­tic way” as pres­i­dent and called on Biden to par­don Democ­rats who could face pros­e­cu­tion under a sec­ond Trump admin­is­tra­tion.  

“I think that, with­out ques­tion, Trump is going to try to act in a dic­ta­to­r­i­al way, in a fascis­tic way, in a revenge­ful first year at least of his admin­is­tra­tion toward indi­vid­u­als who he believes harmed him,” Markey claimed dur­ing a local radio inter­view last month. 

“If it’s clear by Jan. 19 that that is his inten­tion, then I would rec­om­mend to Pres­i­dent Biden that he pro­vide those pre­emp­tive par­dons to peo­ple because that’s real­ly what our coun­try is going to need next year.” 

Trump has long accused Democ­rats and the Biden admin­is­tra­tion of employ­ing “law­fare” against him as he bat­tled charges from rack­e­teer­ing to fal­si­fy­ing busi­ness records, with sup­port­ers such as Rep. Anna Pauli­na Luna, R‑Fla., pro­claim­ing last month that “account­abil­i­ty is com­ing” for those who tar­get­ed Trump. 

Under Markey’s argu­ment, Biden could pre­emp­tive­ly par­don Democ­rats who direct­ly pros­e­cut­ed Trump on charges Trump has slammed as “shams” and “witch hunts.”

A hand­ful of con­gres­sion­al Democ­rats — most notably rep­re­sen­ta­tives Ayan­na Press­ley, Mary Gay Scan­lon and James Clyburn — called on Biden last month in a let­ter to issue sweep­ing par­dons to con­victs in a bid to “reunite fam­i­lies, address long­stand­ing injus­tices in our legal sys­tem, and set our nation on the path toward end­ing mass incar­cer­a­tion.”

The law­mak­ers request­ed the pres­i­dent par­don those who have lan­guished in prison sys­tems for years and rec­ti­fy “dra­con­ian” sen­tences imposed on crim­i­nals. The let­ter specif­i­cal­ly called for the pres­i­dent to con­sid­er par­dons for the “elder­ly and chron­i­cal­ly ill, those on death row, peo­ple with unjus­ti­fied sen­tenc­ing dis­par­i­ties, and women who were pun­ished for defend­ing them­selves against their abusers.” 

SPECIAL COUNSEL, IRS WHISTLEBLOWERS SAY DON’T BUY BIDEN’S ‘SPIN’ ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN LEGAL SAGA

“Now is the time to use your clemen­cy author­i­ty to rec­ti­fy unjust and unnec­es­sary crim­i­nal laws passed by Con­gress and dra­con­ian sen­tences giv­en by judges. The grant of par­dons and com­mu­ta­tions and the restora­tion of rights will undoubt­ed­ly send a pow­er­ful mes­sage across the coun­try in sup­port of fun­da­men­tal fair­ness and fur­ther­ing mean­ing­ful crim­i­nal jus­tice reform,” they wrote in a let­ter to Biden last month. 

Out­go­ing Utah Sen. Mitt Rom­ney, a vocal crit­ic of Trump’s, said ear­li­er this year Biden should have par­doned Trump from his indict­ments. 

“[Biden] should have fought like crazy to keep this pros­e­cu­tion from going for­ward,” Rom­ney told MSNBC host Stephanie Ruh­le in May. “It was a win-win for Don­ald Trump.

“You may dis­agree with this, but had I been Pres­i­dent Biden, when the Jus­tice Depart­ment brought on indict­ments, I would have imme­di­ate­ly par­doned him,” he said. “I’d have par­doned Pres­i­dent Trump. Why? Well, because it makes me, Pres­i­dent Biden, the big guy and the per­son I par­doned a lit­tle guy.”

Biden par­don­ing Trump is unlike­ly to hap­pen and would only apply to his fed­er­al charges brought by spe­cial coun­sel Jack Smith. Legal cas­es against Trump have stalled since his win last month. 

ROMNEY SUGGESTS BIDEN MADE ‘ENORMOUS ERROR’ IN NOT PARDONING TRUMP: ‘IT WAS A WIN-WIN’

Biden has par­doned 26 peo­ple dur­ing near­ly four years in office, a review of DOJ data shows. The major­i­ty of those indi­vid­u­als were con­vict­ed of drug crimes, such as con­spir­a­cy to dis­trib­ute mar­i­jua­na, con­spir­a­cy to dis­trib­ute crack cocaine or con­spir­a­cy to man­u­fac­ture, dis­trib­ute and pos­sess with intent to dis­trib­ute cocaine and cocaine base. 

In Octo­ber, sev­en Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee mem­bers and Geor­gia Sen. Raphael Warnock sent a let­ter to Biden call­ing on him to com­mute sen­tences for indi­vid­u­als who would have been hand­ed short­er sen­tences under the 2018 First Step Act. The First Step Act was a crim­i­nal jus­tice reform bill Trump signed into law fol­low­ing bipar­ti­san sup­port that reduced manda­to­ry min­i­mum sen­tences for some drug crimes. 

“This Admin­is­tra­tion has the oppor­tu­ni­ty to deliv­er jus­tice to incar­cer­at­ed peo­ple who were sen­tenced under over­ly harsh manda­to­ry min­i­mums that the bipar­ti­san First Step Act cor­rect­ed,” Ver­mont Sen. Peter Welch, who signed the let­ter, told Politi­co ear­li­er this year. “Pres­i­dent Biden should heed our call and use the pow­er of exec­u­tive clemen­cy while he has it.”

2 TIMES BIDEN SAID HE WOULD NOT PARDON SON HUNTER BIDEN 

Wik­ileaks founder Julian Assange is again earn­ing sup­port from law­mak­ers and oth­ers to be par­doned after years of legal woes over his pub­li­ca­tion of clas­si­fied mil­i­tary doc­u­ments leaked to him by a source in 2010. 

A bipar­ti­san effort spear­head­ed by rep­re­sen­ta­tives James McGov­ern, D‑Mass., and Thomas Massie, R‑Ky., called on Biden last week to par­don Assange and “send a clear mes­sage” that his admin­is­tra­tion will not tar­get jour­nal­is­tic activ­i­ty.

REPS MCGOVERN, MASSIE URGE BIDEN TO PARDON JULIAN ASSANGE TO ‘SEND A CLEAR MESSAGE’ ON PRESS FREEDOM

“We write, first, to express our appre­ci­a­tion for your admin­is­tra­tion’s deci­sion last spring to facil­i­tate a res­o­lu­tion of the crim­i­nal case against pub­lish­er Julian Assange and to with­draw the relat­ed extra­di­tion request that had been pend­ing in the Unit­ed King­dom,” the law­mak­ers wrote to Biden. “This brought an end to Mr. Assange’s pro­tract­ed deten­tion and allowed him to reunite with his fam­i­ly and return to his home coun­try of Aus­tralia.”

Assange reached a deal with the U.S. Jus­tice Depart­ment to end his impris­on­ment in the U.K. over charges relat­ed to pub­lish­ing clas­si­fied mil­i­tary doc­u­ments. He had spent years in the U.K. to avoid extra­di­tion to the U.S.

BIDEN PARDONS SON HUNTER BIDEN AHEAD OF EXIT FROM OVAL OFFICE

He plead­ed guilty in June to an Espi­onage Act charge of con­spir­ing to unlaw­ful­ly obtain and dis­sem­i­nate clas­si­fied nation­al defense infor­ma­tion and was sen­tenced to time served. He returned to his native Aus­tralia after the plea deal. 

“The terms of Mr. Assange’s plea agree­ment have now set a prece­dent that great­ly deep­ens our con­cern,” the law­mak­ers’ let­ter to Biden said. “A review of pros­e­cu­tions under the Espi­onage Act makes clear that Mr. Assange’s case is the first time the Act has been deployed against a pub­lish­er.

“A par­don would remove the prece­dent set by the plea and send a clear mes­sage that the U.S. gov­ern­ment under your lead­er­ship will not tar­get or inves­ti­gate jour­nal­ists and media out­lets sim­ply for doing their jobs.” 

Biden’s par­don­ing of his son Sun­day fol­lowed the pres­i­dent say­ing ear­li­er this year he would not par­don his son before and after Hunter was found guilty in a June gun tri­al. 

“I am not going to do any­thing,” Biden said after Hunter was con­vict­ed in the gun case. “I will abide by the jury’s deci­sion.”

Hunter Biden was found guilty June 11 of lying about his drug use when buy­ing a gun in 2018. He was found guilty on three charges — mak­ing a false state­ment in the pur­chase of a gun, mak­ing a false state­ment relat­ed to infor­ma­tion required to be kept by a fed­er­al­ly licensed gun deal­er and pos­ses­sion of a gun by a per­son who is an unlaw­ful user of or addict­ed to a con­trolled sub­stance. 

HUNTER BIDEN’S PARDON SETS TROUBLING PRECEDENT, RISKS POLITICIZING JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, CRITICS SAY

Hunter Biden had an exten­sive and well-doc­u­ment­ed his­to­ry with addic­tion, which was best cap­tured in his 2021 mem­oir “Beau­ti­ful Things,” which walked read­ers through his spi­rals of crack cocaine use. 

Hunter Biden faced anoth­er tri­al regard­ing three felony tax offens­es and six mis­de­meanor tax offens­es over his alleged fail­ure to pay at least $1.4 mil­lion in tax­es in a Cal­i­for­nia court in Sep­tem­ber. As jury selec­tion was about to kick off in Los Ange­les fed­er­al court, Hunter entered a sur­prise guilty plea. 

When grilled by the media about Biden par­don­ing his son after say­ing he would not take such an action, press sec­re­tary Karine Jean-Pierre said the pres­i­dent will make oth­er par­don announce­ments in the com­ing weeks but did not pro­vide details. 

“As it relates to par­don­ing or any clemen­cy, the pres­i­dent, as you know, at the end of the year, makes announce­ments. He’s think­ing through that process very thor­ough­ly,” Jean-Pierre said Mon­day. 

“I’m not going to get ahead of — of the pres­i­dent on this. But you could expect more announce­ments, more … par­dons and clemen­cy at the end of … this term.”

Fox News Dig­i­tal’s Lan­don Mion con­tributed to this report.