President Biden has pardoned his son Hunter for all federal crimes committed from 2014 through yesterday. That's not just for the crimes for which Hunter has already been charged, but for anything he did (or may have done) during the last ten years. Granting this pardon was something the President had pledged not to do in June, while he was still a candidate for reelection ("I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him."). But, as NBC reports, "it was decided at the time that he would publicly say he would not pardon his son even though doing so remained on the table." And now that the election is over, Biden could issue the pardon without worrying that voters would punish him or Vice President Harris, who had replaced him on the ticket.
Presidents have the constitutional "Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment." There's nothing Congress can do about that. Giving someone a pardon power is hard to do without, because the chain of review for prosecutorial decisions has to stop somewhere. If the buck doesn't stop with the President, it'll stop with less-accountable prosecutors or courts.
But the President is only accountable to the electorate so long as he or his party are up for election. Once the election is over, there's no one for voters to punish. That's why Biden waited until after the election to pardon Hunter; why Trump did the same for Steve Bannon and Roger Stone; why Obama did the same when commuting the sentences of Chelsea Manning and the terrorist Oscar López Rivera. And, most notoriously, that's why Bill Clinton waited until his last full day in office to pardon the fugitive Marc Rich, who had fled to Switzerland to avoid prosecution and whose ex-wife donated $450,000 to the Clinton Library.
