Anita Dunn, a former senior adviser to President Joe Biden, was deeply critical of the decision to pardon his son, Hunter, saying the timing and rationale undercut the president’s longtime pledge to restore and uphold the rule of law.
“I do not agree with the way it was done, I don’t agree with the timing, and I don’t agree, frankly, with the attack on our judicial system,” Dunn said. The remarks were made earlier this month at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit, but were posted online on Wednesday.
Dunn was a longtime aide to Biden and helped lead his communications strategy in the White House. She left her role as a senior adviser in July to take a new job with a Democratic super PAC in the final months of the 2024 campaign.
Dunn did say during the summit she didn’t believe Hunter Biden — who was found guilty of illegally owning a gun and pleaded guilty to tax charges — should have gone to jail. And she said she believed the president was right to pardon him.
But she added she felt the same concerns about the timing behind the decision as many critics.
“The argument is one that I think many observers are concerned about: A president who ran to restore the rule of law, who has upheld the rule of law, who has really defended the rule of law, kind of saying, well, maybe not right now,” Dunn said. “I agree with the decision to pardon, I absolutely think that Hunter deserves a pardon here, but I disagreed on the timing, the argument and sort of the rationale.”
A better decision, Dunn added, would have been to grant clemency as part of a broader pardon process near the end of his term next month.
Democracy In The Balance
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“Had this pardon been done at the end of the term, in the context of compassion, the way many pardons will be done, I am sure, and many commutations will be done, I think would have been a different story,” she said.
The Times’ Maggie Haberman asked if Dunn was part of the decision-making apparatus, but the former aide said it was clear the White House wasn’t involved.
“It was a process that was done very much internally with the family and with the defense lawyers,” Dunn said.
