The full and unconditional pardon comes after the president had previously said he would not give his son clemency.
Just a couple of months ago, in September, the White House press secretary said that Biden would not issue a pardon for his son.
But on Sunday evening, President Biden said although he believed in the justice system, “politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice”.
He added: “once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further.”
“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision”, President Biden said.
In a reaction statement, Hunter Biden said mistakes he made during the darkest days of his drug addiction had been “exploited to publicly humiliate and shame” his family for political sport.
“I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering,” he added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)