Hunter Biden said Tuesday that the pardon he received from his father, former President Joe Biden, was the result of President Donald Trump winning the November election and that his election “changed everything.”

Speaking on Tommy Christopher’s Substack and first highlighted by Mediaite, the former first son spoke for the first time regarding his pardon and said he was an easy target.

Christopher asked Biden what his thoughts were on the recent slew of criminal indictments handed down by the Trump administration which have included former national security adviser John Bolton, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former FBI Director James Comey.

“My dad would not have pardoned me if President Trump had not won, and the reason that he would not have pardoned me is because I was certain that in a normal circumstance of the appeals,” Biden responded.

In December 2024, Joe Biden granted an unconditional pardon to Hunter, despite previously saying he would not do so. In January, moments before he left office, the former president granted further pardons to his immediate family and their spouses.

“Donald Trump went and changed everything. And it changed everything, and I don’t think that I need to make much of an argument about why it changed everything,” Hunter Biden said.

Hunter Biden noted the high-profile indictments that have already come through Trump’s Department of Justice and said that there are likely more to come.

“You cited just three examples that just all happened within the past couple of weeks,” he noted. “And I don’t — I don’t think he’s even close to being finished, with the, with his revenge tour and his absolute obsession with my dad.

“I think [it] would have made me like a, you know, kind of the easiest, easiest target to just to intimidate and to not just impact me, but impact my entire family into, into silence in a way that at least he is not, it’s not as easy for him to do. Me being pardoned.”

Biden acknowledged his “privilege” being the son of a former president and that most people would not have been as fortunate.

“I’m incredibly grateful for it and I have to say that I don’t think that it requires me to make much of a detailed argument for why it was the right thing to do, at least from my dad, from his perspective,” he added.