President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter almost looks like a fiendish prank on Washington — a Sunday night ambush designed to embarrass and shock.
That was presumably not Biden’s aim. But however unintentionally, the pardon is a kind of sabotage.
It is a rich gift to those who want to blow up the justice system as we know it, and who claim the government is a self-dealing club for hypocritical elites. It is a promise-breaking act that subjects Biden’s allies to yet another humiliation in a year packed with Biden-inflicted injuries.
The decision comes at a moment when the capital is girding for an assault on federal law enforcement institutions led by President-elect Donald Trump and his appointees.
In recent days, Trump has named ideological hardliners, political operatives and family retainers to powerful jobs atop the FBI, the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
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