Biden’s Pardon Has ‘Deeply Disappointed’ California’s Next Senator, Adam Schiff

California’s incoming U.S. senator, Adam Schiff, said Tuesday that he is “deeply disappointed” in President Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter after promising repeatedly he would not.

Schiff, who will be sworn into the Senate on Monday, said in an interview that the pardon opens the door for abuse by future presidents — including President-elect Donald Trump.

“I think it sets a bad precedent that will undoubtedly be abused and probably will be abused in the very near future by the incoming president, who was already citing it in connection with his desire to pardon the January 6th attackers, people who beat police officers and bear-sprayed them,” Schiff told KQED. “And so I think the precedent is going to be a dangerous one.”

The “full and unconditional pardon” that President Biden issued Sunday for Hunter Biden covers nearly 11 years, from Jan. 1, 2014 through Dec. 1, 2024. It effectively erases Hunter Biden’s federal conviction for illegally buying a gun and evading taxes that could have resulted in a prison sentence later this month, and it also prevents prosecutors from bringing other criminal charges related to Hunter Biden’s actions over that time period.

In a statement announcing the pardon, President Biden said his son had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” with charges brought only after his political opponents “instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.” The blanket pardon is “not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted,” pointing to the president’s fears that future charges could have come under the second Trump administration.

“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough,” President Biden stated.

Schiff, however, said this decision will only embolden Trump.

“The incoming president doesn’t seem to need a permission slip for anything to break any norm. But I would not have given him the cover of this pardon because he will use that as some rationalization for completely unrelated pardons,” Schiff said.

Schiff said the pardon also sends a terrible message to the millions of American families whose loved ones may have also committed crimes in the throes of drug addiction.

“There was no one to pardon them. There was no one who cut them any slack. This really is a two-tier system of justice, one tier for ordinary people and one tier for people of political influence,” he said.

As a member of the House, Schiff led the first impeachment hearing against Trump and has been a frequent critic of the former president, who has named Schiff as an “enemy of the state” and vowed to seek retribution against the longtime Los Angeles congressman. However, Schiff said he does not believe Biden should use his remaining days in office to preemptively pardon others Trump has promised to target.