Sean Penn calls Hunter Biden 'one of the finest people' as he backs Joe's decision to pardon son

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Veteran Hollywood star Sean Penn offered a ringing endorsement of Hunter Biden as a person while defending President Joe Biden's decision to fully pardon him over federal tax and gun convictions, in an interview with Variety published on Wednesday, December 4.

The incumbent recently faced criticism for his actions, as he returned on his promise of not interfering with his son's trials. However, Penn argued that Biden's decision is a reflection of new circumstances following the victory of Donald Trump in the general election.

Sean Penn's opinion of Hunter Biden

According to the publication, Sean Penn is Hunter Biden's close friend and confidant, and his paintings are on his walls. He described the felony charges against the latter “one of the (most) horrible hit jobs of all time,” and “existentially insane.”

"In part because I am close with him, I have studied the case,” explained the actor. "And while there are technicalities within one of the cases that are associated with illegality, there is almost no precedent at all for the aggression with which he was charged.”

Speaking of Hunter on a personal level, Penn referred to him as “one of the finest people I know.”

“This is a guy who has taken on the most severe addiction, and has so much to offer people who are suffering or families who are suffering through that,” he continued.

"And I just I’m glad that the possibility is there now that he’ll have the time and space to be able to offer that support to people, which I know is what he wants to do.”

An activist himself, when Penn was asked if he would be willing to welcome Hunter in his no-profit, Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE), he said, "We would be proud to have him. He’s also a fantastic painter.”

Sean Penn defends Joe Biden and calls for more presidential pardons

Earlier in the interview, Sean Penn shared that he was "proud" of President Biden for deciding to pardon his son, saying, "Any father that didn’t do that would have been remiss. I don’t know if I want to have a beer with somebody who wouldn’t have pardoned Hunter Biden, being their son.”

He believed that the incumbent was forced to interfere in Hunter's legal troubles as the incoming federal administration is "a clown show, a dangerous clown show."

“I do not believe that Joe Biden had he won the presidency, would have pardoned his son. I don’t think it was a lie; I think it was a change of mind and circumstance,” he added.

In Biden's remaining time in the Oval Office, Penn wishes for him to hand out more pardons, stating, "It ain’t January yet. I hope that it is also in President Biden’s intentions to (offer) an ongoing concerted focus on people who have been wrongfully charged, overcharged, where the extenuating circumstances have not been fairly considered, and that there will be many more pardons that are better for the world than leaving people to toil in prison.”

Sean Penn's anti-Oscars rant

Sean Penn spoke at a press conference at the Marrakech Film Festival the previous day when the two-time Oscar winner ranted against the Academy.

“The Academy has exercised really extraordinary cowardice when it comes to being part of the bigger world of expression, and in fact, have largely been part of limiting the imagination and very limiting of different cultural expressions,” Penn said at the conference, according to Variety.

“So I don’t get very excited about what we’ll call the Academy Awards (except for) when a film like ‘The Florida Project’, or ‘I’m Still Here’, or, you know, ‘Emilia Perez’, of the things that are likely to happen this year."

He further weighed in on the controversial Trump biopic by Ali Abbasi, 'The Apprentice', saying that “when something sneaks through, it’s to be celebrated.”

“It’s jaw-dropping how afraid this (so-called) business of mavericks is of a great film like that. One with great, great acting. (It’s amazing) that they too can be as afraid as a piddly little Republican congressman," he noted.