Sean Penn backs Biden’s pardon of Hunter, urges more
Sean Penn is defending President Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, saying the “dangerous clown show” that is the incoming Trump administration created a “change of mind and circumstance” for the commander in chief.
“I do not believe that Joe Biden, had he won the presidency, would have pardoned his son,” the “Milk” star, described as a close friend of Hunter Biden, said in an interview with Variety published Wednesday.
“I don’t think it was a lie; I think it was a change of mind and circumstance,” Penn said.
The president announced Sunday that he was issuing a complete pardon of Hunter Biden, absolving him of a conviction on federal gun charges and of a guilty plea on federal tax charges. Before the move earlier this week, Biden had repeatedly said he would not pardon his 54-year-old son.
“Any father that didn’t do that would have been remiss,” Penn said of the pardon.
Calling him one of “the finest people I know,” the politically active Academy Award winner said, “I don’t know if I want to have a beer with somebody who wouldn’t have pardoned Hunter Biden being their son.”
“In part because I am close with him, I have studied the case,” Penn, 64, said.
“And while there are technicalities within one of the cases that are associated with illegality, there is almost no precedent at all for the aggression with which [Hunter Biden] was charged,” he said, referring to the charges as “one of the horrible hit jobs of all time.”
The actor and director also urged the president to issue more pardons before he exits the White House next month.
“It ain’t January yet,” Penn 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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