On Sunday evening, outgoing US President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter, defying his previous pledges to refrain from using the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the purpose of punishing him for federal felony charges related to guns and taxes.

In a reversal of his earlier pledges to refrain from using the exceptional powers of the office for the sake of his family, outgoing US President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter on Sunday night, sparing him from a potential prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax offences.

Prior to his convictions in the Delaware and California cases, the Democratic president had declared that he would neither commute his son’s sentence nor pardon him.

The action was taken less than two months before President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to arrive to the White House, and weeks before Hunter Biden was scheduled to be punished for his trial conviction in the gun case and guilty plea on tax crimes.