6 questions about Hunter Biden’s sweeping pardon, answered

President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden on Sunday, just weeks before he leaves the White House and despite previously promising not to do so.

Biden said in a statement announcing the pardon that his son had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” and that his political opponents had undertaken an “effort to break Hunter,” suggesting that the Justice Department under a second Trump administration would continue to go after him. Hunter Biden was convicted in two separate federal cases involving handgun and tax-related charges and was awaiting sentencing.

The “full and unconditional pardon” covers an 11-year period ending on December 1 and is “not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted.”