It would be difficult to envision a more poorly timed, flagrantly self-serving and dishonest way for President Joe Biden to have spared his errant son Hunter from a potential prison sentence than the blanket pardon he issued on his behalf last Sunday. Any father who has raised a wayward child may sympathize with Biden’s dilemma — in mid-December Hunter had been scheduled to be sentenced on multiple criminal charges related to his failure to pay $1.4 million in taxes — presidents can’t afford such personal indulgences. Biden had promised not to take this very action. He had done so repeatedly. And yet here it arrived, practically wrapped up as a gift to his successor, a blanket confession that American jurisprudence can’t be trusted to be fair and apolitical.

You know who should be celebrating this move? Kash Patel. Donald Trump’s ill-considered pick to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation is not only inexperienced and unqualified but was clearly chosen for his loyalty-above-all-else relationship to the former president. Even setting aside the fact that the current FBI director, Christopher A. Wray, is a Trump appointee (and James Comey successor) with several years left on his 10-year term and would therefore have to voluntarily resign or be fired, one can scarcely imagine an FBI director more likely to blindly do his president’s bidding. So much for the traditional view of the FBI as independent of White House influence.

This is not some theoretical threat to democracy. Trump’s authoritarian tendencies are clear enough. Take away career law enforcement officials, not just within the FBI but elsewhere in the U.S. Department of Justice as is also Trump’s clear intent, and one has to wonder if the “weaponization” of the department is not just a suspect Republican campaign talking point from recent years but a central ambition of the next administration. How fitting that Patel once wrote a children’s book paying homage to his boss as “King Donald.”

None of which is to suggest that Hunter Biden, even with his history of addiction, is the most nefarious character to ever hang out at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Nor is pardoning family members exactly a new concept. Bill Clinton pardoned his brother Roger in the final days of his second term on drug charges and Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, father of Jared Kushner who is Trump’s son-in-law, a real estate developer who pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges related to $6 million in campaign contributions.

It might have been too much to expect Biden, 82, to trust the courts to determine his son’s fate. It may be that he considers the “self-sacrifice” box on his job performance evaluation already checked having voluntarily stepped down from his reelection campaign to boost Vice President Kamala Harris (albeit too late) in her unsuccessful run for president. But Biden’s explanation, including that his son was “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” is unconvincing given the facts. Whatever the motivations of any particular investigator or prosecutor, the matter still had to hold up in a court of law with Hunter ultimately pleading guilty — to tax evasion and, earlier, to lying about his drug use on a gun purchase form.

Let us also not be confused about whether there remains a “two-tiered system of justice” in this country. Too often, there is. But it is not a matter of the wealthy and politically connected being targeted too frequently or judged too harshly. It is, in fact, just the opposite. Nor is it about politics. If we are to shed tears for defendants denied true justice, let it be for those who lack the resources to hire teams of lawyers, raise huge sums of money or manipulate public opinion through social media posts and sympathetic podcasts. Don’t let it be for Trump and his long history of malfeasance that rightfully earned him multiple felony convictions and potentially massive judgments from pending civil lawsuits.

Once again, one can only hope that the handful of Republican senators not in full lockstep with Trump will cast a wary eye on the president-elect’s nominees including Patel. It should not be too much to expect them to act in their country’s best interests. The skepticism they demonstrated toward the appointment of former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz as U.S. attorney general likely played a big factor in his decision to withdraw. They may be our last, best hope of maintaining some checks and balances on an administration intent on seeking retribution for the perceived wrongs done to “King Donald.”