Former First Lady Jill Biden is publicly defending Joe Biden’s controversial pardon of Hunter Biden, acknowledging for the first time that fear of political targeting, not legal principle, drove the decision that reversed years of the president’s own public pledges.
In an interview with CBS News‘ Rita Braver set to air Sunday, Jill Biden said she fully supported the pardon after concluding that the Justice Department’s posture toward Hunter changed once Donald Trump won the 2024 election
“And then the Justice Department changed. And I think that the process was not fair to Hunter. When Trump was elected, things changed, and we knew that he would target Hunter. And we just could not let our son go to jail on a charge that no one would go, I mean, no one has ever gone to jail for.”
The admission is striking given that Joe Biden had repeatedly and publicly pledged not to pardon his son, then did exactly that in the final weeks of his presidency, granting Hunter a sweeping pardon covering a broad scope of potential federal liability.
Hunter Biden’s legal exposure was substantial: he was convicted in June 2024 on three felony counts for lying on federal firearms paperwork about his drug use when purchasing a revolver, and separately pleaded guilty to nine tax-related charges.
Those convictions were the product of a years-long investigation that predated Trump’s return to office, a fact that complicates the “targeting” narrative considerably. The pardon drew bipartisan condemnation precisely because it contradicted Biden’s stated position that no president should use executive clemency to shield family members from lawful prosecution
Jill Biden was unequivocal about her role in the decision.
“I truly supported it. I wanted him to pardon Hunter at that point, and I agreed with Joe.”
She also defended the administration’s decision to issue preemptive pardons to other Biden family members before the inauguration, covering conduct for which no charges had even been filed.
“I suppose for the same reason that he felt that they would be targeted.”
The interview comes as Jill Biden promotes her new memoir, View from the East Wing: A Memoir. The renewed attention has frustrated Democratic strategists and officials, who argue it distracts from current political battles, reopens controversies the party would prefer to leave behind, and undermines efforts to move on from the Biden era entirely.
The CBS interview represents the most candid public accounting yet from the Biden family on the pardon’s rationale: not a vindication of Hunter’s innocence, but a calculated judgment that the incoming administration would weaponize the Justice Department against him, and that the family chose to act first.
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