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President Biden pardons son Hunter
President Biden and his son Hunter Biden walk in downtown Nantucket, Mass., on Friday.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
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Jose Luis Magana/AP
President Biden announced late Sunday that he had signed a full and unconditional pardon for his son Hunter Biden.
The pardon comes in the last weeks of President Biden’s time in office and despite his public assurances in the past that he would neither pardon nor commute his son’s sentence.
“I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” Biden said in a White House statement. “It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
Hunter Biden was convicted in June of federal gun charges for lying about his addiction to crack cocaine when he purchased a gun. Three months later, he entered a guilty plea to tax offenses for failing to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes. Sentencing was expected later this month in both cases.
Both of the prosecutions were brought by Justice Department special counsel David Weiss. The cases were rooted in a period of time when Hunter Biden was wrestling with the death of his brother, Beau, and struggling with his own addiction to crack cocaine.
In June, President Biden promised not to pardon his son and said, “I will not pardon him” after his son was convicted for three federal gun charges.
The 82-year-old seemed to address this reversal in his statement.
“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice,” Biden wrote.
President Biden and his son Hunter spent the Thanksgiving weekend together in Nantucket, Mass. The Biden family is known to be very close.

“In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here,” Biden said. “Enough is enough.”
Hunter Biden’s legal troubles have long been viewed as a political liability for his father, and Republicans frequently sought to tarnish President Biden.
At the time of Hunter Biden’s gun trial in Delaware in June, his father was still running for reelection in a what was seen as a tight race with Donald Trump. A bank of news cameras lined the walkway into the federal courthouse in downtown Wilmington.
By the time of the tax trial in early September, President Biden had dropped out of the race and the potential political impact of Hunter Biden’s criminal conduct had largely disappeared.
In a statement emailed to NPR, Hunter Biden seemed to acknowledge how his legal issues had affected his father’s political life.
“I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.”
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Anti-ICE protests take place across US for ‘National Shutdown’
Local businesses across the US forwent income for the day to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and the fatal shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis.
In what was billed a “National Shutdown,” organizers called for a 24-hour general strike, asking students to skip school, business owners to close up shop, and consumers to refrain from spending for the day.
Some small and medium-sized businesses from coast to coast posted on their social media stating that they’d be closed on Friday as part of the demonstrations. Others said that they’d remain open to support their workers, but showed support for the protests.
Touchstone Climbing, a popular California-based climbing gym with about 20 locations, posted on social media that its gyms were closed and that hourly employees scheduled to work on Friday would be paid.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Medium, an online publishing company, told employees that they were free to take Friday off to participate in the protests.
Photos show crowds of demonstrators holding signs that said “ICE Out” and gathering in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, New York City, Boston, and Minneapolis, among other cities.
The protests come amid growing tensions in communities where the Trump administration has deployed federal agents. Many of the high-profile enforcement efforts have been concentrated in blue or so-called sanctuary cities.
In Minneapolis, two US residents, Good and Pretti, were fatally shot after a confrontation with federal agents that occurred within a span of a few weeks.
John Moore/Getty Images
Hundreds of local businesses in Minnesota participated in an economic blackout last week, shuttering their stores for a day following the shootings. The Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, which is tied to AFL-CIO, the largest labor union in the US, endorsed the general strike.
The Department of Justice announced on Friday that it opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting of Pretti, a 37-year-old registered nurse who was killed by a Border Patrol agent.
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Map: 2.4-Magnitude Earthquake Reported in New Jersey
Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 3 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “weak,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown. The New York Times
A minor, 2.4-magnitude earthquake struck in New Jersey on Friday, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The temblor happened at 3:42 p.m. Eastern about 4 miles northeast of Whitehouse Station, N.J., or about 35 miles west of Manhattan, data from the agency shows.
As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.
Source: United States Geological Survey | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Eastern. Shake data is as of Friday, Jan. 30 at 3:59 p.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Friday, Jan. 30 at 5:58 p.m. Eastern.
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Alex Pretti shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis prompts DOJ civil rights probe
People attend a candlelight vigil this week organized by health care workers at the site where Alex Pretti was killed in Minneapolis.
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One of two shooting deaths of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal agents is the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation.

The Civil Rights Division is investigating the Saturday killing of Alex Pretti, but not the shooting death earlier this month of Renee Macklin Good by federal agents in Minneapolis, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in Washington on Friday.
Pretti was shot multiple times Jan. 24 as Border Patrol officers tried to arrest him while he was recording immigration officers on his phone.
Blanche says the probe is separate from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s shooting investigation of the incident.
“It means talking to witnesses. It means looking at documentary evidence, sending subpoenas if you have to,” Blanche told reporters at a news briefing Friday on multiple topics. “And the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division has the best experts in the world at this.”
Blanche gave no investigation timetable nor did he commit to the release of body camera footage of the agents. He said the department’s investigation would encompass events of that day as well as the days and weeks that preceded the Pretti shooting.
Under questioning, Blanche said the fatal shooting of Good isn’t receiving similar DOJ scrutiny.
“There are thousands, unfortunately, of law enforcement events every year where somebody is shot,” he said. “The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice does not investigate every one of those shootings. There has to be circumstances or facts, or maybe unknown facts, but certainly circumstances that warrant an investigation.”
Federal officials have excluded Minnesota investigators from assisting with reviews of both shootings, leading to a state lawsuit that seeks to require evidence of the Pretti shooting be maintained. State authorities haven’t ruled out bringing charges against federal officers after completing their own investigations.
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