New revelations from Capitol Hill suggest Hunter Biden may have played a direct role in discussions about presidential pardons — including his own — during the final days of Joe Biden’s presidency, raising fresh alarms about nepotism, abuse of power, and the use of executive clemency amid serious questions about the former president’s cognitive fitness.
The explosive claims came during the final round of closed-door testimony in the House Oversight Committee’s ongoing probe into President Biden’s use of the autopen to sign off on official orders — including a record-breaking flood of pardons and commutations just weeks before he left office.
“The president’s own son was attending pardon meetings at the White House — and no one thought that was a problem?” a senior GOP aide on the committee told this outlet. “It’s beyond the pale.”
According to a source familiar with the six-hour deposition of former Biden Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, the president’s embattled son, Hunter Biden, was present for internal White House meetings about pardons and clemency near the end of 2024 — even as his own federal legal troubles loomed.
Zients “admitted that Hunter was in the room for some of the pardon discussions,” the source told this outlet. “Whether he gave input or just listened isn’t entirely clear — but he was there. That’s highly unusual and deeply inappropriate, especially given the outcome.”
That outcome? A “full and unconditional” pardon for Hunter Biden, signed by President Biden in early December 2024, just under two months before Donald J. Trump defeated him in the election and took office for his second term.
“There’s no daylight between Joe and Hunter,” said Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Chair of the Oversight Committee. “This pardon stinks of a backroom deal.”
The autopen probe — launched in early 2025 — is now digging into whether Joe Biden was even mentally capable of understanding the orders he signed via the mechanical device, which allows documents to be “signed” remotely without physical presence.
Internal White House records show that Biden authorized over 4,200 clemency orders during his final year — including a staggering 2,500 commutations and pardons on a single day, January 17, 2025, just three days before Trump returned to office.
Critics say this was a “mass release” of convicted criminals, many with violent records, disguised as a lame-duck gesture of compassion.
“This was a power grab by unelected aides and Hunter Biden himself,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO). “Joe Biden was not leading — he was rubber-stamping.”
Documents obtained by congressional investigators reportedly show Department of Justice officials were “deeply disturbed” by the last-minute clemency surge and raised concerns about the legality of the autopen use.
Hunter’s increasing presence in internal meetings reportedly ramped up after Joe Biden’s catastrophic June 2024 debate against Donald Trump, where the president appeared confused, off-topic, and unable to recall major policy points.
Zients, who served as chief of staff at the time, admitted under oath that Biden’s “speech stumbles increased as he aged” and that the former president “struggled to remember names and dates.”
“He was clearly declining,” the source quoted Zients as saying.
This lines up with previous reports that Hunter Biden stepped in to help manage post-debate damage control, raising serious ethical questions about whether the president’s troubled son had become an unelected gatekeeper to White House decision-making.
While a second source close to Zients claimed Biden “still made final decisions,” that defense is now being questioned by multiple House Republicans.
“If Hunter was in those meetings, the public deserves to know what role he played,” Comer said Thursday. “This isn’t a private family business — this was the Office of the President of the United States.”
Republicans are now weighing formal subpoenas for Hunter Biden and senior members of Biden’s legal team, including attorney Abbe Lowell, who previously defended Hunter during his now-pardoned tax and firearms cases.
Despite repeated requests for comment, neither Zients’ legal team nor Lowell responded to inquiries.
At a recent rally in Arizona, President Donald Trump blasted the revelations as “proof the Biden White House was run like a crime family.”
“Hunter gets a pardon from his own father, and we’re just supposed to pretend that’s normal?” Trump asked the crowd. “No way. It’s corruption, plain and simple — and we’re going to expose every last bit of it.”
The Oversight Committee is expected to release a full interim report this fall, with potential criminal referrals to follow. House Republicans are also discussing the possibility of launching a separate inquiry into the legal status of Hunter’s pardon.
“If that pardon wasn’t lawfully authorized — if Joe Biden wasn’t of sound mind or if Hunter exerted improper influence — it could be null and void,” said constitutional law professor Robert Hanks. “That’s uncharted territory.”
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As sad as it is, heck, he may have actually been the main brain between the two of them