The federal cases against Hunter Biden and his father's pardon

The first attempt to resolve the case fell apart in 2023. In June, he agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses in a deal that would also resolve a felony gun charge.^[13] A top House Republican said he was "getting away with a slap on the wrist,"^[14] while CNN noted that the prosecutor who offered the deal had been chosen by Trump.^[15] At a July hearing, the judge unexpectedly put off her decision and the deal was put on hold.^[3] In August, Garland named the lead prosecutor, David Weiss, a special counsel, a role that gave him more independence from the department's leadership,^[4] Weiss said the gun agreement had been withdrawn,^[16] and the misdemeanor tax charges were formally dismissed.^[17]

Two indictments followed. In September 2023, Hunter Biden was indicted on federal charges of lying about his drug use when he bought a gun, and he pleaded not guilty.^[18][19] In December he was indicted on nine tax charges in California. Prosecutors said he had skipped out on paying $1.4 million he owed in taxes, and he pleaded not guilty to those charges as well.^[20][21] His lawyers asked to subpoena Trump and former Attorney General William Barr to show political pressure on the case, which the special counsel opposed,^[22][23] and argued that the gun law violated the Second Amendment.^[24] Judges rejected his bids to dismiss both cases,^[25][26] and in May 2024 an appeals court cleared the way for the gun trial.^[27]

His gun trial opened in June 2024, with his former wife and a former girlfriend testifying about his drug use,^[28][29] and Weiss used his laptop as evidence.^[30] The jury convicted him on three felony counts.^[1] His father said he would not commute his sentence,^[31] and a Washington, D.C., court suspended his law license.^[32] Before his tax trial, prosecutors said in a court filing that a Romanian businessman accused of corruption had paid him to try to influence US government agencies, evidence they planned to present at trial.^[33] On the eve of that trial in September, Hunter Biden offered an Alford plea, which lets a defendant accept a conviction without admitting guilt, over prosecutors' objections, then pleaded guilty.^[34][2]

In December 2024, before Hunter Biden was sentenced, his father pardoned him.^[5] White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the decision,^[35] while the comedian Jon Stewart called it hypocritical and some Democrats threatened to withhold donations to Biden's presidential library.^[36][37] The judge in the tax case, Mark Scarsi, accused the president of "rewriting history" in explaining the pardon.^[38] In his final report in January 2025, Weiss defended his cases as thorough and impartial, and criticized the president for pardoning his son and for calling the prosecutions politically motivated.^[39] In June 2025, Ed Martin, the Trump Justice Department's pardon attorney, said he had been directed to review Biden's late clemency for family members and death row inmates,^[6] and in an August 2026 interview Hunter Biden acknowledged that the pardon was likely "not good" for the American people or his father's legacy.^[7] His laptop, his lawsuits against his critics and his paternity case in Arkansas are followed in separate arcs in this series.