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Kwame Kilpatrick and Hunter Biden
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who had his 28-year-prison term commuted to time served by President Donald Trump in 2021, was critical of President Joe Biden's broad pardon of son Hunter Biden on Sunday night.
Kilpatrick, 54, who is the same age as Hunter Biden, told Deadline Detroit on Monday:
"Instead of leading or championing a single criminal justice reform bill or any change at all, his big pardon went to his son, without a single notion of relief to the thousands of Black and Brown people he viciously helped put away, and remain in federal prison today.
"Detroiters, who voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden need to understand that his legacy for this mostly Black and Latino community is that he championed a law that provoked selective prosecution and draconian over-sentencing for mostly low-level nonviolent drug offenders," Kilpatrick said.
Kilpatrick was referring to a 1994 crime bill Biden helped author that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The bill was designed to reverse rising crime, but critics said it led to mass incarceration in the 1990s, particularly of Black and Brown Americans.
Kilpatrick, who resides in both Michigan and Georgia, endorsed Trump for president and campaigned on his behalf. He is the founder of Movemental Ministries, which holds weekly services on Saturday afternoons at the Novi Public Library.
Biden, who originally said he would not pardon his son, issued a broad pardon that not only wipes out his tax and gun convictions, but covers any federal laws he may have violated back to 2014.
Many Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson have been highly critical of the pardon of Hunter.
“President Biden insisted many times he would never pardon his own son for his serious crimes,” Johnson posted on X on Monday morning. “But last night he suddenly granted a ‘Full and Unconditional Pardon’ for any and all offenses that Hunter committed for more than a decade! Trust in our justice system has been almost irreparably damaged by the Bidens and their use and abuse of it.”
“Real reform cannot begin soon enough!”
But Eric Holder Jr., who was attorney general under President Obama, said the pardon was the right thing to do, writing on X:
"No USAtty would have charged this case given the underlying facts. After a 5 year investigation the facts as discovered only made that clear," Holder wrote Sunday night on X.
"Had his name been Joe Smith the resolution would have been — fundamentally and more fairly — a declination.
"Pardon warranted."
