President Joe Biden just made history — the bad kind — with Sunday night’s sweeping Thanksgiving-weekend pardon of his own son, Hunter Biden. (Talk about trying to bury a story.) The outgoing president made this all way harder than it needed to be on himself, his son, and the justice system.

U.S. President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden after repeatedly pledging not to. Below is a look at the circumstances leading up to the pardon and its legal consequences. WHAT DID THE PARDON COVER?

Some Democrats fear that Trump will use the pardon to criticize the justice system and bolster his own efforts to remake it.