Judge scolds President Biden for trying to ‘rewrite history’ in Hunter Biden pardon

WASHINGTON – A federal judge in California ended Hunter Biden’s criminal tax case on Tuesday after criticizing President Joe Biden’s summation of the case − noting his son’s admission that he continued to evade taxes “well after” becoming sober while spending on luxury clothes and escorts.

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi wrote the president has broad authority to grant clemency “but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.”

The president said he gave his son a “full and unconditional” pardon Sunday for any federal crimes committed from 2014 to now by arguing that he had been addicted to drugs and that prosecutors singled him out because of political pressure.

“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong,” the president said in a statement. “There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution.”

The pardon cleared Hunter Biden of a jury conviction for gun charges in Delaware and his guilty plea to tax charges in California. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika terminated the gun case at Biden’s request.

Scarsi ended the tax case Tuesday, but not without taking a shot at Joe Biden’s characterization of the prosecution.

“For example, the President asserts that Mr. Biden ‘was treated differently’ from others ‘who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions,’ implying that Mr. Biden was among those individuals who untimely paid taxes due to addiction. But he is not,” Scarsi wrote.

In court filings, Hunter Biden said he was “severely addicted to alcohol and drugs” through May 2019.

But his guilty plea admitted engaging in tax evasion after he became sober by deducting personal expenses as if they were business expenses for “luxury clothing, escort services, and his daughter’s law school tuition,” Scarsi wrote.

Hunter Biden “admitted that he ‘had sufficient funds available to him to pay some or all of his outstanding taxes when they were due,’ but that he did not make payments toward his tax liabilities even ‘well after he had regained his sobriety,’” to maintain his lifestyle, Scarsi wrote.

Scarsi also criticized Hunter Biden’s lawyers for submitting an online link to the president’s press release about the pardon rather than the official pardon warrant when asking to dismiss the case.

“In short, a press release is not a pardon,” Scarsi wrote.

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This article was originally appeared on USA TODAY