The unprecedented pardon of Hunter Biden by his father, President Joe Biden, has ignited a firestorm of criticism from legal and political experts, with some viewing it as a pointed rebuke of the Justice Department and others downplaying it as political theater.

In conjunction with the sweeping 11-year pardon, the president announced Sunday that he believed his son, who was convicted on three federal gun charges for lying on a firearms application and pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges earlier this year, was being unfairly targeted by his political rivals. Since then, the president’s decision has incited public skepticism about both the impartiality of the justice system and the motivations behind the president’s decision.