On March 25, 2025, President Donald Trump made headlines by issuing a presidential pardon to Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, who had been convicted in 2018 for his role in a conspiracy to defraud a Native American tribe. The pardon, announced via a post on X by user Gunther Eagleman™️, has sparked widespread discussion about its implications, particularly in the context of ongoing investigations into the Biden family’s business dealings. Archer, a key figure in the congressional inquiry into Hunter Biden’s financial activities, now finds himself at the center of a legal and political chess game—one that could have far-reaching consequences for the Biden family.
The decision to pardon Archer was met with immediate reactions on X, with user HLFNUT pointing out a critical legal consequence: “Once they are pardoned they can’t plead the 5th. They have to tell the truth or go to prison for perjury. Well played Trump. Well played.” This observation highlights a nuanced aspect of U.S. constitutional law. According to the Constitution Center, a presidential pardon removes the recipient’s ability to invoke the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination for the pardoned offense. As Justice Henry Billings Brown noted in an 1896 ruling, a pardoned individual “cannot longer set up his [Fifth Amendment] privilege, since he stands, with respect to such offense, as if it had never been committed.”