The White House is refusing to rule out commuting Hunter Biden’s sentence after his conviction by a Delaware jury on Tuesday, saying sentencing has not yet been scheduled and the president has not had discussions with staff. Biden’s sentencing is not expected to happen for a number of months. 

During a discussion with reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Italy for a G7 summit, the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, refused to rule out the possibility of a commutation, which would allow the president to reduce his son’s sentence to essentially nothing should he choose to do so. President Biden told ABC News just before the conviction that he would not pardon his only surviving son, but the interviewer, David Muir, did not follow up and ask about commutation. 

“I haven’t spoken to the president about this since the verdict came out and as we all know, the sentencing hasn’t even been scheduled yet,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said when asked about the possibility of a commutation for the first son.

“He was asked about a pardon, he was asked about the trial specifically, and he answered it very clearly, very forthright. As we know, the sentencing hasn’t even been scheduled yet. I don’t have anything beyond what the president said,” Ms. Jean-Pierre continued. “He’s been very clear about this.”

It’s not clear if her comments reflect a serious debate within the White House over whether Biden should receive a commutation, or if Ms. Jean-Pierre is just out of the loop and made a gaffe.

The president was clearly emotional after the verdict was handed down by 12 Delawareans after just three hours of deliberations on Monday and Tuesday. After Biden was convicted, the president made a last-minute schedule change to fly to Delaware to be with his family the night before heading off to Europe for the summit. 

In a statement after the verdict, Mr. Biden said he would respect the jury’s decision and support his son during his appeal. Yet according to reporting in Politico and the Washington Post, White House aides are deeply worried about how a prison sentence for the first son would affect the president’s emotional state. Hunter Biden himself told the podcaster Moby that in pursuing him, Republicans are trying to get him to relapse, die, and thereby “destroy a presidency.”

Republicans have claimed that the president is just saying he will not pardon his son for political reasons, hoping to save his re-election campaign. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who sits on the House Oversight Committee, which is leading the impeachment inquiry into the president, predicts that Mr. Biden will lose this year’s election and then will pardon his son. 

“I think that what you’re going to find is on Election Day, when those polls close, I think that you’re going to see that Biden will eventually pardon his son,” Ms. Luna told Fox News. 

In the past, presidents have typically saved their most controversial pardons or commutations for their final days in office, meaning that Mr. Biden could — if he loses this coming election — save his son without any political ramifications shortly before leaving office. 

President Clinton infamously pardoned his brother after Roger Clinton was convicted on drug charges, and he later pardoned a fugitive financier, Marc Rich, whose ex-wife was a major donor.

President George H.W. Bush pardoned a number of Reagan administration officials after they were convicted for their involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair, including the defense secretary, Casper Weinberger, and a state department official, Elliott Abrams.

Later, President George W. Bush commuted the prison sentence of Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who’d been convicted of obstruction of justice and false statements.

The failure to grant Mr. Libby a full pardon led to a breach with Mr. Cheney, who accused the president of “leaving a man on the battlefield.” President Trump later granted Mr. Libby a full pardon. 

Other notable White House reprieves include President Obama commuting the sentence of Chelsea Manning, who gave sensitive information to WikiLeaks while serving in the Army.

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Correction: President George W. Bush commuted the prison sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, but failed to grant him a full pardon. An earlier version misstated the circumstances of Mr. Libby’s pardon and commutation of sentence.