Hunter Biden will no longer receive Secret Service protection: Trump

WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump said Monday that Secret Service protection for former President Joe Biden's children Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden has been revoked.

"Please be advised that, effective immediately, Hunter Biden will no longer receive Secret Service protection,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

"Likewise, Ashley Biden, who has 13 agents, will be taken off the list,” he added.

Trump said Hunter Biden has had Secret Service protection for an extended period of time, all paid for by the US taxpayer.

"There are as many as 18 people on this Detail, which is ridiculous! He is currently vacationing in, of all places, South Africa, where the Human Rights of people has been strenuously questioned. Because of this, South Africa has been taken off our list of Countries receiving Economic and Financial Assistance," he said.

Just hours before Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, Biden granted pardons to several of his family members, including James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens and Francis W. Biden, citing what he called "unrelenting" politically motivated attacks against them.

Biden's first major pardon was in December, for his son Hunter, who was found guilty of federal gun charges stemming from his possession of a firearm while addicted to drugs in 2018. After a plea deal in that case was rejected, critics said the president’s son was being prosecuted in a case where any other person would have not been charged.

Trump’s Republican Party often lashed out at Hunter Biden, trying to link him to a complex web of conspiracies.