April 1 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of a business associate of Hunt Biden who testified last year in Republican-led congressional hearings seeking to impeach then-President Joe Biden.
Jason Galanis was serving a nearly 16-year prison sentence when his sentence was commuted by Trump on Friday. The Executive Grant of Clemency was made public by the Justice Department on Monday.
Galanis was sentenced in September 2020 to 189 months in prison over multiple fraud schemes, including manipulating the market for a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and defrauding Native Americans through the issuance of millions in Tribal Bonds that could not be redeemed or sold.
Last year, Galanis became a key witness for Republicans attempting to uncover potential illicit business dealings involving Hunter Biden that they could connect to his father, President Joe Biden.
The Republicans led a multi-year investigation trying to impeach Joe Biden during his presidency, focusing on his son, Hunter Biden, and his overseas business dealings. However, no evidence of wrongdoing by the former president was ever found.
Galanis testified in March of last year from prison, that he entered into a business arrangement with Hunter Biden in 2013 when Joe Biden was vice president.
“The entire value-add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father,” Galanis said.
Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee condemned the sentence commutation, calling Galanis a “con man.”
President Trump just released Galanis from prison. In the gangster state, all that matters is loyalty to the boss,” it said on X.
Galanis is the second associate of Hunter Biden to testify against the former president to receive clemency from Trump.
Last week, Trump pardoned Devon Archer, an associate of both Hunter Biden and Galanis. Archer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison in 2022 for his involvement in the scheme involving Galanis to defraud the Native American community.