President Joe Biden has opened the door for President-elect Donald Trump to undermine his own legal problems by issuing a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden. Regardless of Biden’s intentions, the pardon comes off as corrupt.

President Biden pardoned Hunter Biden, a felon convicted of multiple charges relating to illegal gun ownership and tax fraud. More specifically, he committed three gun felonies, including falsifying a background check form when purchasing a revolver in 2018. He was also convicted of nine tax crimes, including three felonies and six misdemeanors.

President Biden is now on the list as one of only four presidents in history who have used their pardon power to save family members from legal consequences. He claimed that his son was singled out for political reasons, even though he was convicted by a randomly selected jury of his peers.

The action blindsided Democrats. Many prominent governors and congress members who had supported him in his re-election campaign before he dropped out spoke out against the pardon. While it is understandable that a father would want to bail his son out from what he sees as an unfair prosecution, opposers of the pardon are right.

Trump has often spoken about the Jan. 6 rioters being politically persecuted and mistreated by the justice system. He also speculated issuing mass pardons for them.

Recently, Trump also said he believed that all seven House members who were on the Jan. 6 Select Committee should be in jail.

Democrats have positioned themselves as the party supporting the rule of law. They have insisted that no one is above the law and therefore Trump’s impeachments and prosecutions are only fair. Meanwhile, Trump has insisted that all of the investigations against him are political “witch hunts,” a rallying cry he has used since his first year in office to garner more support by making himself out as a victim.

While there is plenty of evidence that Trump has unequivocally broken the law, this pardon only lends further credence to the Republican narrative that the “two-tier” justice system is biased against conservatives.

Biden’s actions have made Trump and his allies’ claim completely justified. This will only contribute to the breakdown of rule of law as Trump seeks to reform the justice system to his desire.

For example, Trump has repeatedly threatened to prosecute political rivals, even nominating MAGA loyalist Kashyap Patel as FBI Director. Due to Biden’s actions, these threats of retribution—one of his foremost campaign promises—will be more easily fulfilled.

After all, if Hunter’s prosecution was political and therefore wrong, who’s to say that Trump’s prosecutions weren’t? Trump can now claim that going after his opponents because they politically persecuted him is a valid reason to do so and Democrats would have a harder time convincing the American people otherwise. Calling Trump out would make it look like there exists a double standard as well as make Democrats seem hypocritical. Trump can also easily pardon his supporters and allies using the same justification that Biden used to pardon his son.

While it may be true that merely pardoning a family member is not as bad as actively going after those who put him on trial, doing so simply reeks of corruption to many voters. President Biden should have understood how ignoring the will of the jury who convicted his son will only tarnish his legacy, increase partisan polarization and embolden Trump to pardon or prosecute whomever he wants—all to the detriment of our democracy.