In some of his last acts as US President, Joe Biden pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley, members of the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on January 6, and members of his own family.
Biden’s pardons come after Donald Trump, who was sworn in as president shortly after noon on Monday, warned of an enemies list filled with those who politically deceived him or wanted to hold him accountable for his bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat and his role to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be misconstrued as an admission that any individual has been involved in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any wrongdoing,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless dedication to our country.”
It’s common for a president to grant pardons at the end of his term, but these acts of mercy are usually offered to everyday Americans who have been convicted of crimes.
But Biden has used the power in the broadest and most unchecked way possible: to pardon those who have not yet been investigated. And with acceptance comes a tacit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, even though those pardoned have not been formally charged with any crimes.
Biden issued blanket pardons for his brother James and his wife Sara, his sister Valerie and her husband John Owens, and his brother Francis.
Biden said his family had been “subjected to relentless attacks and threats, motivated solely by the desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics.”
“Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe that these attacks will stop,” he said.
Last month, he pardoned his son Hunter for tax and gun crimes.
Republicans in Congress have sought to tie Biden to what they characterized as questionable business dealings by Hunter Biden and James Biden over the past two years, but their impeachment inquiry has failed
Biden cites threats and intimidation
Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years and was Biden’s chief medical adviser until his retirement in 2022. He helped coordinate the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and drew the ire of Trump when he refused to endorse Trump’s baseless claims.
He has become the target of intense hatred and venom from people on the right, who blame him for mask mandates and other policies they believe have violated their rights, even as tens of thousands of Americans die.
Fauci said he appreciated Biden’s gesture.
“I have committed no crime … and there is no possible basis for any allegations or threats of criminal investigation or prosecution against me,” Fauci told ABC News.
Mark Milley is the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and has called Trump a fascist and detailed Trump’s behavior surrounding the deadly January 6, 2021 riot.
Since leaving office, Trump has directed his anger at Milley in social media posts and speeches over perceived wrongdoing, sometimes using graphic language and even suggesting the military leader was a traitor. Milley said he did had to take precautions in retirement.
“I do not want to spend the remaining time the Lord has given me fighting against those who might unjustly seek retribution for the wronged,” Milley said in a statement. “I don’t want to put my family, my friends and those I served with through the resulting distraction, expense and anxiety.”
Biden said in his statement on Monday that the pardoned public officials had faced “continuous threats and intimidation for faithfully performing their duties.”
US President Joe Biden is reportedly considering preemptive pardons for prominent critics of Donald Trump, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, to protect them from potential retaliation when Trump takes office.
Biden is also granting pardons to committee members and staff on Jan. 6, including former House members Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both Republicans who angered Trump’s base by agreeing to join the bipartisan group, which includes seven Democrats led by committee chairman Bennie Thompson. Biden’s pardon also applies to Capitol and DC Metropolitan police officers who testified before the committee.
Kinzinger told CNN earlier this month that while he understands the reasoning behind a potential preemptive pardon from Biden, he personally has no interest in receiving it.
“As soon as you receive forgiveness, it looks like you are guilty of something,” he said. “I am guilty of nothing but bringing the truth to the American people and, in the process, embarrassing Donald Trump.”
Trump hints at his own pardons
Biden has warned for years that Trump’s re-ascension to the presidency would be a threat to democracy. His decision to break with political norms with a preemptive pardon was driven by this concern.
Biden set the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued, a list that includes a pardon for his son Hunter. The president announced Friday that he would commute the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses.
Biden previously announced he was commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on death row in the state, commuting their sentences to life in prison just weeks before Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding the death penalty, takes office. In his first term, Trump presided over an unprecedented string of executions, 13, in a prolonged period during the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump, taking office on Monday, considered pardoning some convicted in the January 6, 2021, siege, referring to them as “political prisoners” at times in the past.
More than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the Capitol riots.
Hundreds of people who did not participate in the destruction or violence were charged with misdemeanors for illegally entering the Capitol. The others were charged with crimes including assault for beating police officers. The leaders of the extremist groups Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Biden is not the first to consider such preemptive pardons.
In 1974, President Gerald Ford granted a “full, free and absolute pardon” to his predecessor, Richard Nixon, for the Watergate scandal. He believed that a potential trial would “produce a protracted and divisive debate” and that Nixon had “already paid an unprecedented penalty by abdicating the highest elective office in the United States.”
