Follow live updates on the start of the Trump administration.
President Biden on Monday issued a series of preemptive pardons in his final hours in office to protect his family and other prominent figures from a promised “revenge” campaign by his successor, Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Biden joined five family members, including his brothers James B. Biden and Francis W. pardoned others who had been targeted. General Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, and former Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
“I believe in the rule of law and am optimistic that ultimately the strength of our judiciary will trump politics,” Biden said in a statement. “However, this is an exceptional situation and nothing can be done in good conscience. A baseless and politically motivated investigation will threaten the life, safety and economic security of the targeted individuals and their families. wreak havoc on.
“Even if an individual has done nothing wrong, is in fact doing the right thing, and is ultimately acquitted, the mere fact that they have been investigated or prosecuted can have a huge impact on their reputation and finances. “There is the potential to cause unnecessary damage,” he added.
In addition to his brother, Biden pardoned his sister Valerie Biden Owens and her husband John T. Owens, and Sarah Jones Biden, wife of James Biden. He pardoned all members of the bipartisan House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, as well as their staff and police officers who testified during the investigation.
By granting preemptive pardons, Biden effectively turned the president’s constitutional power to pardon into a shield against what he claimed was politically motivated revenge. No other president has used presidential pardons so broadly and openly to thwart successors believed to abuse their power, and no president, not even Trump, has pardoned so many family members. not present.
With less than 20 minutes left in Biden’s presidential term, the White House announced the pardon for the family after Biden had already entered the Capitol Rotunda to witness Trump’s swearing-in. The pardon is a remarkable capstone to Biden’s half-century political career and reflects the president’s distrust of his predecessor, Trump, who will assume the office of president. It showed emotion and anger.
His actions were dramatic evidence of how power in Washington has shifted rapidly since Trump was sworn in as Biden’s successor. Earlier in the day, the outgoing president used his pardon power to protect those who investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. At the end of the day, the president-elect pardoned 1,600 people, nearly all of those charged or convicted in the attack, and commuted the sentences of 14 others.
“The innocent will be pardoned in the morning and the guilty will be pardoned in the afternoon,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, who is also a member of the Jan. 6 committee, said in an interview. “It’s strange to receive a pardon just for doing your job and upholding your constitutional oath of office. But the incoming administration is consistently leveling threats.”
Mr. Biden emphasized that he was not granting the pardons because some of the pardonees had actually committed crimes. “The issuance of these pardons should not be misconstrued as an admission that an individual has engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should the acceptance of a pardon be an admission of guilt for any crime,” he said. said.
Trump expressed his outrage in remarks to lawmakers at a luncheon on Capitol Hill, saying that Biden was “an unelected committee of political thugs who have committed such heinous crimes. He accused the government of granting “amnesty” and referred to the lawmakers. The January 6 committee, like Mr. Cheney.
He called Mr. Cheney a “crying madman” and asked, “Why would we help a man like Milley?”
There is no clear precedent for Biden to use his pardon power to vaccinate people who are not even under investigation, much less have been charged or convicted of a crime. But some legal scholars argue he is within his authority.
The closest precedent may be President Gerald R. Ford’s pardon of his disgraced predecessor Richard M. Nixon in 1974, even though he was never charged with any crime. But Mr. Nixon faces the real threat of prosecution by the special counsel investigating Watergate, which forced him to resign, and Mr. Ford, like Mr. Biden, is acting to thwart a future president. Not that it was.
Throughout last year’s campaign, Trump targeted Democrats, election officials, law enforcement officials, intelligence officials, reporters, his own former staff, and Republicans who did not support him, often identifying specific criminal acts. He threatened to prosecute without incident.
Trump said he would “appoint a real special counsel to go after” Biden and his family. Biden previously granted his son Hunter a pardon covering all possible crimes over an 11-year period. Although the president was not included in the preemptive pardon announced Monday, he could rely on the immunity the Supreme Court granted him last year in a lawsuit Trump filed to avoid prosecution. It might be possible.
Trump said on social media that Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming who helped lead the committee on Jan. 6, “should be indicted for what he did to our country” and that all members of the committee “They should be prosecuted for their crimes,” he said. A lie and frankly treason! He said General Milley, Trump’s pick to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff, deserves to be executed because he called the Chinese side after January 6 to warn Beijing not to take advantage of the crisis in Washington. suggested.
Dr. Fauci, who has been in government for half a century and served as the nation’s top infectious disease expert for 38 years under presidents from Ronald Reagan to Biden, has been criticized for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He was targeted by Trump’s far-right allies. . Mr. Trump’s former strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, said Dr. Fauci, General Milley and others should be prosecuted. “You deserve what you call Roman rough justice, and we’re ready to give it to you,” Bannon said on election night.
Some of those who received pardons publicly expressed their gratitude.
“After 43 years in uniform, defending the Constitution and faithfully serving my country, I have spent the rest of the time the Lord has given me to those who may seek unjust retribution for their perceived disrespect.” “We don’t want to spend it fighting the war,” General Milley said. statement. “I don’t want to cause my family, friends, and those I serve with the distraction, expense, and anxiety that would result.”
Dr. Fauci similarly pointed to his long career in public service, noting that he has been the subject of politically motivated prosecution threats. “These threats are completely baseless,” he said in a statement. “To be clear, I have not committed a crime and there is no basis for any allegations or threats of criminal investigation or prosecution against me.
“But the fact is that the mere articulation of these baseless threats, and the possibility that they will be carried out, causes untold and excruciating pain to me and my family,” he said. added.
In recent days, some of those eligible for pardons have said they do not want them, including former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois, and Sen. Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California. there was. Both served on the committee on January 6th. With Mr. Cheney.
“As soon as you get a pardon, it looks like you committed some crime,” Kinzinger told CNN this month. Schiff said in a separate CNN interview that it would set a bad precedent. “I don’t want to see future presidents granting broad pardons to members of their administrations as they leave office,” he said.
However, because the pardons for committee members were issued to specific people rather than specific individuals, there was no requirement for recipients to receive the pardons. Committee members issued a statement on behalf of their chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Mississippi, thanking Biden. “Today we are pardoned not for breaking the law, but for obeying the law,” they said.
Other members of the Jan. 6 committee eligible for Biden’s pardon include Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Pete Aguilar of California, former Reps. Stephanie Murphy of Florida and Elaine of Virginia. – Former Congressman Luria is included, and all are Democrats.
Michael Fanone, one of the officers targeted for pardon, said he did not want a pardon and had not spoken to anyone at the White House about it, but he believes Biden has no choice but to grant it. He expressed anger and disappointment at what he felt he was not getting.
Fanone, who engaged in hand-to-hand combat with rioters on January 6, said: “It is insane that we live in a country where the president of the United States feels the need to grant pre-emptive pardons to Americans.” spoke. Citizens who have testified in investigations into the insurrection incited by the president-elect have committed or promised revenge against the participants and the organizations that investigated them. ”
A lawyer for Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell, two police officers who have been outspoken about the January 6 attack, said pardons for them were “never sought and never discussed with the White House.” ” he said.
“Continued threats and attacks by the far right, and rewriting of the truth surrounding the events of that day, sadly justify this decision,” said their attorneys, Mark S. Zaid and David H. Laufman. Yes, and it is a matter of concern.”
Among Biden’s relatives who received pardons, James Biden is the one receiving the most scrutiny from Republicans. Congressional Republicans in June formally asked the Biden Justice Department to indict James Biden and Hunter Biden for lying to Congress in sworn testimony as part of the Republican impeachment inquiry against President Biden. did.
Rep. James R. Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, last week asked Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, to take up the issue. James Biden was involved in some of Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings that were the subject of an impeachment inquiry and were scrutinized by the FBI and IRS, but he has not been charged with any crimes.
Biden’s pardon comes after federal prosecutors charged the president-elect with trying to overturn the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents and convicted him of concealing hush money payments to adults. and various other potential Trump targets, including state prosecutors. A movie star who claimed to have had an affair with Trump.
Biden also commuted the life sentence of Leonard Pelletier, a Native American activist who was convicted of killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1975. Biden said Pelletier, 80, could serve the remainder of his term on home confinement.
The outgoing president also pardoned two Democratic politicians, former South Carolina City Councilman Ernest William Cromartie and Kentucky Congressman Gerald G. Lundergan.
Report contributed by Helene Cooper, Michael S. Schmidt, Devlin Barrett, Kenneth P. Vogel, and Luke Broadwater.
