President Biden’s unexpected decision to pardon his son Hunter is part of a long history of controversial clemency issued by presidents under the vast constitutional power.
The president’s decision, announced late Sunday evening, drew immediate ire from Republicans and even some Democrats, who criticized Biden for walking back on previous vows to let his son’s convictions on federal gun and tax crimes stand.
“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice — and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further,” Biden said. “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision. “
Biden is not the first president to raise eyebrows when exercising the clemency power of the nation’s highest office. Here’s a look at the history of controversial presidential pardons:
Trump pardons Charles Kushner, allies
Following the 2020 election, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who also served as a White House senior adviser.
Charles Kushner pleaded guilty in 2004 to filing false tax returns and devising a scheme to retaliate against his sister, a cooperating witness, by having a prostitute seduce her husband and filming them having sex.
Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison on charges of tax evasion, lying to the Federal Election Commission and retaliating against a federal witness.
The same day, Trump pardoned Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, two of his allies. Stone faced charges for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction in connection with the Trump-Russia probe, while Manafort was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for bank and tax fraud.
Later, in one of his final acts as president, he also pardoned ally Steve Bannon for his role in a scheme to raise funds for Trump’s border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. New York state prosecutors have since launched their own investigation into the matter.
Trump announced Saturday that he was appointing Charles Kushner to be the ambassador of France when he retakes the White House in January.
Obama commutes Chelsea Manning sentence
In his final days in the White House, former President Obama commuted most of the remaining sentence of Chelsea Manning in January 2017.
Manning, a former Army soldier, was sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted in 2013 of leaking classified information about U.S. national security activities.
The leak brought global attention to WikiLeaks, which received Manning’s disclosures. Her sentence was among the longest handed down for conviction of government leaks. She had served seven years at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., before Obama commuted her sentence.
Then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) at the time called it “just outrageous.”
Clinton pardons half-brother and Marc Rich
Hunter Biden and Charles Kushner aren’t the only relatives of a sitting president to receive a pardon.
In 2001, then-President Clinton pardoned his half-brother, Roger Clinton, who was sentenced to more than a year in prison after pleading guilty to selling cocaine to an undercover police officer.
The former president also attracted controversy in the final hours of his administration when he issued a pardon to commodities trader Marc Rich. Rich had fled to Switzerland after being indicted in 1983 on charges of evading millions in taxes and illegally trading with Iran while it held American hostages.
“An Indefensible Pardon,” read the headline of a New York Times opinion piece published at the time.
Iran contra felons pardoned by George H.W. Bush
Former President George H.W. Bush granted full pardons to six former officials in President Reagan’s administration for their roles in an arms-for-hostages scandal later known as the Iran-Contra affair.
Several officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was under an arms embargo at the time, to fund an insurgent group in Nicaragua that opposed the country’s anti-American regime.
Top officials, including former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, were implicated and faced charges. Weinberger’s pardon prevented him from going to trial on charges he lied to Congress about his knowledge of the plot.
Special counsel Lawrence Walsh, the prosecutor in the case, called Bush’s decision the completion of the “Iran-Contra cover-up” and accused the president of “misconduct.”
Carter issues blanket pardon for Vietnam War draft dodgers
On his first full day in office in 1977, former President Carter followed through on his campaign promise to pardon draft dodgers in the Vietnam War, an effort to put the bitter divisions caused by the war in the past.
The Justice Department estimated at the time that about 10,000 men were impacted. Military deserters and convicted civilian protesters who had engaged in acts of violence were not included in the order.
The decision drew harsh criticism. Then-Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) called the pardon “the most disgraceful thing that a President has ever done.”
Ford pardons Nixon after resignation
In the only pardon of an Oval Office occupant, former President Ford granted former President Nixon a “full, free, and absolute pardon” after he resigned the presidency over the Watergate scandal.
Only 38 percent of Americans supported the move, according to a Gallup poll taken at the time. Public opinion of Ford’s pardon improved in the years following, with a majority of Americans ultimately agreeing it was the right decision.
Nixon was never formally charged with a crime, but Ford believed that his predecessor’s acceptance of the pardon was an admission of guilt based on a 1915 Supreme Court case.
Johnson pardons ex-Confederates
Former President Andrew Johnson granted pardons to ex-Confederates in a series of proclamations following the Civil War, initially carving out exceptions and requiring some to sign a loyalty oath to the United States before receiving reprieve.
Ultimately, Johnson on Christmas Day in 1868 granted a “full pardon and amnesty” for treason to “every person who directly or indirectly participated in the late insurrection or rebellion.”
Johnson wrote the pardon “will tend to secure permanent peace, order, and prosperity throughout the land, and to renew and fully restore confidence and fraternal feeling among the whole people.”
Washington: First presidential pardon for treason
Even the first-ever presidential pardon created controversy.
President Washington first exercised the power in 1795, granting clemency to two Pennsylvania men sentenced to hang for treason for participating in the so-called Whiskey Rebellion.
Then-Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton wrote in a letter to Washington that the “full force of the Law” should come down on the men, contending that their role in the violent protest of a whiskey tax — which Hamilton championed — threatened the federal government’s sovereignty.
But Washington thought clemency better settled the conflict.
