The top Democrat in the US House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, has called on Joe Biden to pardon some “working-class Americans” after the president faced criticism for pardoning his son Hunter.
“During his final weeks in office, President Biden should exercise the high level of compassion he has consistently demonstrated throughout his life, including toward his son, and pardon on a case-by-case basis the working-class Americans in the federal prison system whose lives have been ruined by unjustly aggressive prosecutions for nonviolent offenses,” Jeffries said in a statement.
Biden, who leaves office on 20 January, for months had said he would not pardon his son, who was found guilty of lying about being addicted to illegal drugs while buying a gun and pleaded guilty to criminal charges of failing to pay $1.4m in taxes. The sweeping pardon also applied to any other crimes “he committed or may have committed” between 1 January 2014 and 1 December this year.
The president said he believed his son had been made the target of a politically motivated prosecution. Republicans including Donald Trump condemned the move, as did some Democrats who said it eroded trust in the judicial system.
