Can Donald Trump overturn Hunter Biden’s presidential pardon?

The presidential pardon angered both rivals and allies, with some Democrats on the fence about the decision. While US President-elect Donald Trump called the decision “a miscarriage of justice,” Democrat Governor Jared Polis accused the president of “putting his family above the nation.”

Trump is schedule to assume office as the 47th President of the United States in January, and the question remains – can Hunter Biden’s presidential pardon be revoked by Trump administration?

When US presidents revoked pardons

Since the charges against Hunter Biden are federal in nature, Joe Biden was able to order a sweeping pardon for his son. The US Constitution gives the president powers to pardon federal charges, but there is no provision in the Constitution that allows any president to revoke or reverse the pardon.

However, there is a grey area when it comes to the presidential pardon – it can be revoked if it hasn’t formally been delivered.

According to the documents by the Congressional Research Service, the research institute of the United States Congress, then outgoing President Andrew Johnson in June had pardoned a prisoner, and the incoming president Ulysses S Grant revoked the pardon, a decision which was upheld by the federal court.

The 1869 case report, published by the CRS, quoted the judge as saying: “The law undoubtedly is, that when a pardon is complete, there is no power to revoke it, any more than there is power to revoke any other completed act.”

The case further highlighted that until the pardon is delivered, it may be revoked.

A more recent example would be of President George W Bush, who granted and then revoked the sweeping pardon of a real estate developer in 2008 over fraud charges. Isaac Robert Toussie, who was convicted of making false statements to a government department and mail fraud, was one of the 19 people pardoned in December 2008 by George Bush.

However, Bush decided to revoke the pardon a day later after finding out that Toussie had donated $30,800 to Republicans, reported The New York Times. Bush’s Department of Justice argued that the president was able to revoke the pardon because the recipient “had not received an official notification of the president’s action,” the report said.

In both the cases, the presidential pardon was revoked due to non-deliverance of the formal notification of the decision.

Can Hunter Biden’s pardon be overturned?

In the 2008 case, Bush was able to revoke the pardon just a day after granting it to Toussie, before it was finalised.

In the case of Hunter Biden, the new Trump regime will not be able to revoke his pardon since it has already been finalised by the courts, reported Newsweek. Biden’s sentencing was scheduled to take place later this month but the hearing was ultimately cancelled after the courts recognised the pardon granted by Joe Biden.

However, Donald Trump has been vocal of his criticism of the pardon, asking Biden if the same rules would be applied to the “January 6 hostages,” referencing the Trump supporters who stormed the Congress after the 2021 election.