EDITORIAL: Joe Biden further tarnishes his forgettable legacy

President Joe Biden’s legacy leaves much to be desired, but his decision to pardon his son Hunter on the way out of the White House leaves another irreparable stain.

The move, announced Sunday, contradicts the 46th president’s repeated assurances that he would abide by the justice system’s handling of his son’s case, which involves tax evasion and gun charges. That has now been exposed as a cynical deception designed to neuter an election issue. Should anybody be surprised, given this administration’s grand scheme to hide Mr. Biden’s declining mental state from the American people?

The Constitution bestows upon the nation’s chief executive the “Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of impeachment.” There have been controversies surrounding this presidential prerogative, most notably involving Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon in 1974. But this represents the first time a president has used this authority to protect a member of his immediate family.

Mr. Biden has now eroded the moral high ground occupied by sanctimonious progressives who insist Donald Trump represents a grave danger to the norms of American democracy — and members of the left aren’t happy. The New Yorker accused Mr. Biden of putting “his family above the American people.” The New Republic called the pardon “a quintessentially corrupt act.”

The circumstances surrounding the pardon are remarkable.

The move is a pre-emptive strike against a jail sentence for Hunter. Most pardons are issued after the fact. Mr. Biden has shielded his son before he has even been sentenced. If Mr. Trump exercises similar authority regarding Jan. 6 offenders, these defendants will already have paid a steep price.

In addition, the pardon is extraordinary in its scope. The order exonerates Hunter “for those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.” This goes well beyond the tax and gun charges. Is it a coincidence that the 10-year window begins about the time that the younger Biden began cashing in on his father’s name with a lucrative deal in Ukraine?

Finally, Mr. Biden clings to a thin reed as justification for the pardon. Sounding like Mr. Trump, the president maintains he is simply helping his son counter an unjust prosecution. Yet the case was brought under the aegis of Mr. Biden’s own Justice Department, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland. A plea deal unraveled when the sides disagreed on its details. None of this was the result of Mr. Biden’s enemies, real or imagined.

Mr. Trump would be wise to wield his pardon power with discretion. Particularly given that Mr. Biden has failed miserably in that regard.