New report highlights what led Joe Biden to change his mind — and pardon his son

The reality that Donald Trump would reemerge in the White House with a handpicked circle of loyalists set on seeing through political and legal retribution on his perceived enemies spurred President Joe Biden to issue a full pardon of his son, according to new reports.

But it was Hunter Biden’s upcoming sentencings on federal gun and tax charges later this month that drove the president to move forward and inform aides late Saturday evening of his decision, The New York Times reported Monday.

“Time to end all of this,” Biden said, a person briefed on the call told the publication, which spoke to half a dozen people about how the president arrived at the controversial decision.

While support for a pardon has been building for months within the Biden family, the president privately struggled with the pardon idea since Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal gun charges in June, the Times reported. Biden publicly vowed that he would not interfere with the case.

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“As the months ticked by, the president’s mood grew ever darker,” the report said. “By late July, Mr. Biden had dropped out of the presidential race, reluctantly. In September, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty on the eve of his tax trial in Los Angeles.”

And by November, voters made Trump president-elect and Biden, “now an 82-year-old lame-duck, single-term president,” grew increasingly concerned as he watched the incoming president “stock his administration with a vengeful cast of characters who would use the judicial system to punish political opponents.”

The Times added that “there was never serious consideration of anything short of a full pardon, such as a commutation of his sentence."

The publication noted that Hunter Biden made it known to people close to him "that he wanted – needed – a pardon."

But in the end, the discussions and ultimate decision “was, for the most part, a family matter.”

“The final discussions about pardons excluded senior White House staff, including only the Bidens and defense lawyers,” the report said.