Judicial Watch sues DOJ for Hunter Biden pardon file

A government watchdog group called Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department to get records about Hunter Biden's presidential pardon, according to Judicial Watch reports. The organization wants to see all documents and communications from top Justice Department officials about the controversial pardon that former President Biden gave to his son.

Tom Fitton, who leads Judicial Watch, said the pardon is not valid because it covers crimes that are not clearly defined and go back ten years. The group believes the Trump administration should release all information about what they call the Biden pardon scandal. Judicial Watch filed this legal action because it thinks the public deserves to know more about how this unusual pardon came to be.

The lawsuit was officially filed on Thursday, July 3, in a federal court in Washington, D.C., as reported by Just the News. This legal action came after the Justice Department failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request that Judicial Watch sent on December 2nd, 2024. In December, President Biden gave his son Hunter a full pardon for any federal crimes he might have committed between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024. Just the News noted that this time period includes when Hunter Biden worked on the board of a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma. The watchdog group specifically asked for records from the offices of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, and Associate Attorney General about the pardon decision.

Texas Border Business highlighted that this pardon was special because it was the only one out of over 1,500 pardons that President Biden signed by hand during his last days in office. All the other pardons were signed using an automatic signing machine called a presidential autopen, according to a Fox News report from June 2025.

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The pardon covers the same time period when Hunter Biden served on Burisma's board, which has been part of various investigations. Texas Border Business also reported that the Justice Department officials involved in this case include former Attorney General Merrick Garland, former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and former Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer. This lawsuit is just one of many legal cases Judicial Watch has filed to get information about the Biden family's business dealings.

Meanwhile, Hunter Biden recently spoke openly about his past drug addiction in an interview with a YouTube channel called Channel 5, as covered by AOL. He talked about how dangerous it was to buy crack cocaine on the street and admitted he learned to make the drug himself to avoid these risky situations. AOL reported that Hunter Biden, who says he has been sober since June 2019, strongly denied claims that he used drugs in the White House while his father was president.