President Biden’s hypocrisy on full display: Pardons his own son after making a point about ‘independent’ justice"
In a move that’s being hailed as a “full and unconditional” pardon, President Joe Biden has announced that he’s granting his son Hunter Biden a free pass for all federal charges related to his time between 2014-2024. Just 50 days before leaving office, Biden had previously declared that he wouldn’t be making the move, stating he’d abide by the jury’s decision. But now, it seems he was just playing a different tune.
TL;DR
President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who was facing up to 25 years in prison for lying on a federal form about his drug addiction. This comes after months of saying he wouldn’t make the move, and is being met with criticism from politicians and others who called him out on his earlier stance. A case of “my family is more important than I am” - how about keeping your promises for once?
Not entirely. Not solely controlled by the president for sure. But this is where we get into the question of law vs. regulation. Law gives DEA the right to regulate drugs and substances. DEA classifies marijuana as harmful, thus it becomes illegal. Law requires the 4473 form question on illegal drugs. Political decisionmaking and bureaucratic policy decide whether state medical marijuana registries should be imported into NICS deny lists. And Biden is of course responsible for the actions and communications of his own office.
So if Biden wanted to go hardcore pro-weed, he could simply order DEA to de-schedule marijuana, and if they refuse demand the resignation of the DEA head and replace them with someone who’d deschedule weed. That then effectively removes the federal prohibition on marijuana. As a softer action, he could order FBI to not import state MMJ registry lists into NICS. And he could direct his office that while he and they may be anti-gun, marijuana won’t be used against gun owners.
But it has been the position of various parts of the executive branch that marijuana users must still be prohibited…