WASHINGTON, December 2. /TASS/. US President-elect Donald Trump will not be able to override incumbent President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter or even open new investigations into him once he takes office, the Politico newspaper said, citing Samuel Morison, a former US Justice Department official specializing in clemency issues.

According to Morison, the Justice Department under Trump will not be able "to reopen the long-running criminal probe of the president’s son" because "the president’s pardon covers all ‘offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in’ from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, the newspaper said. The start date is noteworthy, the paper states, as Biden Jr. became a board member of Ukrainian gas company Burisma in April 2014 when his father was vice president. At that time, some US media outlets alleged that Hunter used his father’s influence to advance Burisma’s interests, reportedly receiving substantial sums of money, a portion of which, according to some Republicans, the younger Biden funneled to the now president.

Meanwhile, Trump may use Biden’s pardon as a precedent to justify his own pardons, Morison posits. "It gives him (Trump - TASS) some political cover. I think some January 6 pardons [of those convicted for their roles in the attack on the Capitol of January 6, 2021] are probably coming — at least some, maybe all," he was quoted as saying.

Biden announced the pardon of his son Hunter in a statement on Sunday. Biden Jr. was found guilty of gun and tax evasion charges by federal courts in Delaware and California, respectively. Despite previous promises not to intervene, the senior Biden explained the pardon by saying his son had been unfairly "singled out."

Trump, who will replace Biden in the White House on January 20, 2025, slammed the outgoing leader’s decision as "an abuse and miscarriage of justice" while Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called it a travesty of democracy.