If President Bill Clinton can pardon his brother, there is no reason why President Joe Biden can’t pardon his son.
If there is anyone who won’t get a pardon even if he wanted one — which he does not — it is Donald Trump.
Trump has raised more than $200 million upon the Biden-planned, rigged trial and conviction that has blown up in Biden’s face. Trump supporters are voting with their dollars.
Still, talk of presidential pardons is in the air. This is the first time in history that the son of a sitting president is standing trial days after a former president was convicted.
Although President Biden said he would not pardon Hunter if he were convicted of any of the crimes he is charged with during his Normandy Day observance visit Thursday, he can always change his mind. Or forget what he said.
Besides, Biden believes that Hunter, whose trial on felony gun charges began Monday in federal court in Wilmington, Del., has done nothing wrong.
And this includes charges against his once coke-addled son on tax evasion in a second upcoming trial in California.
In an MSNBC interview a year ago, Biden said “My son has done nothing wrong. I have faith in him.”
Asked how the charges would affect his presidency, Biden said, “It impacts my presidency by making me feel proud of him.”
On Monday, Biden repeated that he was proud of Hunter, although he left out his belief that he had done nothing wrong.
You can take it to the bank that Joe Biden will pardon Hunter if he is convicted and faces prison time for allegedly lying about his drug use when purchasing a .38 special revolver, or for not paying his taxes.
Either way, Hunter Biden, 56, does not look like a man who would do prison time well.
To avoid potential prison for Hunter, all Joe Biden needs to do is cite the precedent, if necessary, of former President Bill Clinton and his 2001 pardon of his half-brother Roger who had served time on federal drug related offenses.
If one president can pardon his half-brother, then another president can pardon his half-wit son.
Trump is in a different category, however. While he has been convicted for falsifying business records to coverup payments to Stormy Daniels, the action took place in a state and not a federal court.
Thus, a pardon on his phony conviction would have to come from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, which is highly unlikely.
In addition to election interference charges in Georgia, Trump also faces two federal indictments over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the other that he illegally retained classified documents after leaving the White House.
Biden, as suggested by Utah Sen. Mitt Romney — no friend of Trump’s — should have pardoned Trump some time ago and thereby show the country that he was not only magnanimous but also was unafraid of facing Trump in a fair election.
But as nothing is fair in love and war, noting is fair in American politics these days either. As far as Biden and the Democrats are concerned, the dirtier the better.
This is not to say that Trump would have accepted a pardon in the first place. To do so he would first have to admit he did something wrong and express proper remorse, which is something he would never do.
It has become obvious that that none of these cases would have seen the light of day had not they been pursued by Biden and his Democrat-controlled and politized U.S. Justice Department, along with the collusion of a pair of Democrat district attorneys in Manhattan and in Georgia.
But if Biden’s goal was to damage Trump, keep him from campaigning or even the ballot, he has failed spectacularly. Instead of painting Trump as a criminal who belongs behind bars, he has made Trump into a persecuted political martyr.
Someone should have warned Biden to be careful for what he wished for.
Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
