Experts pointed to several broad, pre-emptive and blanket pardons that bear similarities to the one covering Hunter Biden. But they also feature some key differences.

The language of the Nixon pardon cited crimes he “has committed or may have committed” between January 20, 1969, and August 9, 1974 – language similar to Hunter Biden’s pardon.

As noted, that is not Watergate-specific, and the dates cover Nixon’s entire presidency. But it’s a period roughly half as long as that covered under Hunter Biden’s pardon.

There’s also the fact that some of Nixon’s actions might already have been exempt from prosecution by virtue of his role as president – something Hunter Biden doesn’t benefit from.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter pardoned most of those who dodged the Vietnam War draft between August 4, 1964, and March 28, 1973. That covered a large group of people, but the pardon was only for violating the Military Selective Service Act and related regulations.

Other presidents have also issued blanket amnesties for large groups of people tied to specific events or specific crimes.

Benjamin Harrison did so in 1893 for Mormon polygamists, noting that they had “abstained from such unlawful cohabitation” by 1890. But that was, likewise, for a specific crime.

Andrew Johnson issued individual pardons for 13,000 Confederate soldiers after the Civil War, granting them clemency for “all offences by him committed, arising from participation, direct or implied” in the rebellion.

“These individual pardons were issued by Johnson throughout his term, and particularly during its first two years,” Frank O. Bowman, a pardon expert at the University of Missouri School of Law, said in an email. “Hence, they reached back some six to eight years.”

George Washington did so in 1794 for participants of the Whiskey Rebellion, a tax revolt in Pennsylvania. The pardoned conduct was broad – the pardon was for those who had “directly or indirectly engaged in the wicked and unhappy tumults and disturbances lately” and encompassed residents of several counties – but it was at least tied to one event.

A couple of other more recent examples that involve pardoning figures for crimes committed in high-profile scandals bear some similarities to the Hunter Biden pardon.

George H.W. Bush in 1992 pardoned six figures in the Iran-contra affair, including former defence secretary Caspar Weinberger, “for all offences charged or prosecuted by Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh or other member of his office, or committed by these individuals and within the jurisdiction of that office”.

And now-President-elect Donald Trump in 2020 pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn for “any and all possible offences” arising from facts or circumstances that were “in any matter related” to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Loading

Broad clemency

The latter went even further than the former, by pardoning Flynn for conduct even just somehow related to the special counsel’s investigation. At the time, some experts regarded it as the broadest act of clemency since Nixon’s pardon.

“Flynn’s pardon was broad, to be sure, but not nearly as broad as Hunter’s,” Morison said.

There is some question about whether such a broad pardon for unspecified crimes is constitutional, an issue that arose when reports indicated Trump might pre-emptively pardon family members at the tail end of his first term.

The Nixon pardon was not tested in court. But the Supreme Court said amid Johnson’s post-Civil War pardons that a president’s pardon power “extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency or after conviction and judgment”.

There is some subjectivity in comparing these pardons. Hunter Biden’s known actions come up well shy of the magnitude of participating in a rebellion against the US or some of the high-profile scandals mentioned above, for example.

And it’s worth emphasising how extraordinarily political many of Trump’s pardons were – granting clemency to numerous political allies and several people wrapped up in investigations involving Trump, including Flynn. Trump surely stretched the bounds of presidential pardon power.

But there’s no question that Biden’s exercise of his pardon power also stretched those bounds – and on behalf of his son, no less.

“The Nixon pardon is the only precedent in modern times for such a broad pardon, which purports to insulate Hunter Biden from prosecution for crimes that have not even been charged,” said Margaret Love, who served as US pardon attorney under George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

“Some of the Trump pardons were also disruptive of ongoing prosecutions,” Love said, adding that they were at least “directed to specific charged conduct”.

Washington Post

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.