(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden on Thursday said he will not commute his son Hunter’s sentence following the latter’s conviction on three felony gun charges Tuesday.
Biden also maintained Thursday he would not pardon his son, which he originally said during an appearance on ABC News last week.
“I am extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction. He’s one of the brightest, most decent men I know,” Biden said during a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Group of Seven summit in Italy. “I abide by the jury’s decision. I will do that, and I will not pardon him.”
When a reporter asked whether Biden would lessen his son’s sentence, the president, shaking Zelenskyy’s hand at the end of the conference, turned his head and yelled, “No.”
This is the first time since Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict was announced that the president has spoken publicly about it, though he did say in a written statement Tuesday that he would accept the outcome of the case.
Judge Maryellen Noreika did not immediately schedule a date for Hunter Biden’s sentencing Tuesday. Although he faces 25 years in prison, legal experts told NewsNation it is unlikely he will get the maximum sentence.
The trial put a spotlight on a turbulent time in Hunter Biden’s life after his older brother Beau Biden’s death in 2015, when he was struggling with a crack cocaine addiction. Hunter Biden detailed this in his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” which was referenced multiple times in the trial.
Prosecutors said Hunter Biden lied when he swore he wasn’t a drug user on the form he filled out at the gun shop in 2018, months before Joe Biden announced his bid for president. However, defense attorneys said that Hunter Biden did not consider himself an “addict” when he filled out that form, as he had completed a rehab program weeks earlier.
The trial over gun charges was the first of two trials Hunter Biden faces amid his father’s reelection campaign. In September, he is set to be tried in California over misdemeanor charges he failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes.
Reporting by NewsNation correspondents Evan Lambert and Joe Khalil contributed to this report.
