Biden granted tentative pardons to Anthony Fauci, Liz Cheney and others in recent hours
US President Joe Biden has pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, Liz Cheney and members of the House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol, as well as retired General Mark Milley, to protect against potential retaliation by a future Donald Trump administration.
Biden's decision comes after Trump warned of an enemies list filled with those who have politically crossed him or tried to hold him accountable in an attempt to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election and his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol. for the role in 2021.
Trump has picked Cabinet nominees who have defended his election fraud and vowed to punish those implicated in his investigation.
“The granting of these pardons shall not be mistakenly construed as an admission of any person's involvement in any wrongdoing, nor shall the acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt of any crime.” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless devotion to our country.”
It's common for a president to grant pardons at the end of his term, but those acts of clemency 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 haven't even been investigated have received, have not been formally charged with any crime.
“These are exceptional circumstances and there's nothing I can do in good conscience,” Biden said, adding that “even when individuals have done nothing wrong, and have actually done the right thing, and will ultimately be exonerated, the fact of the matter is the investigation or prosecution may cause irreparable reputational and financial damage.”
Biden cites threats and intimidation
Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years and was Biden's top medical adviser until his retirement in 2022. He helped coordinate the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic when he refused to support Trump's baseless claims. :
He has been the target of intense hatred and vitriol from people on the right, who blame him for mask mandates and other policies they believe infringe on 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 a criminal investigation or any accusation or threat of criminal prosecution against me,” Fow 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 over perceived wrongdoing in social media posts and speeches, sometimes using blunt language and even suggesting the military leader had committed treason had to take safety precautions to retire.
US President Joe Biden is reportedly considering preemptive pardons for prominent critics of Donald Trump, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, to protect them from possible retaliation when Trump takes office.
“I don't want to spend the rest of the time the Lord gives me fighting those who might unfairly seek retribution for perceived slights,” Millie said in a statement I have served, subjected to distraction, expense and anxiety.'
In a statement on Monday, Biden cited how the pardoned public servants faced “continuous threats and intimidation to faithfully carry out their duties.”
Biden also pardoned members and staff of the Jan. 6 panel, including former House members Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both Republicans, who angered Trump's base by agreeing to join a bipartisan group that included seven Democrats, committee chairman Benny Led by Thompson.Biden's pardon also applies to the U.S. Capitol and U.S. who testified before the Committee Metropolitan police officers.
Earlier this month, Kinzinger told CNN that while he understood Biden's rationale for a possible preemptive pardon, he was not personally interested in the pardon.
“The second you get a pardon, it looks like you're guilty of something,” he said. “I'm guilty of nothing but telling the truth to the American people and embarrassing Donald Trump in the process.”
Trump hints at his own pardon
Biden has warned for years that Trump's re-election as president would be a threat to democracy. His decision to break political norms with a preemptive pardon was motivated by those very concerns.
Biden set a presidential record for the most individual pardons and commutations, a list that included pardoning his son Hunter.The president announced Friday that he would commute the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes.
Biden previously announced that he would commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row to life in prison just weeks before Trump, an outspoken advocate of expanding the death penalty, took office. during the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump, who took office on Monday, considered pardoning those convicted in the January 6, 2021 siege, sometimes calling them “political prisoners.” those responsible should “obviously” not be pardoned.
More than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the siege that left more than 100 police officers injured and lawmakers holed up.A Trump supporter was shot dead inside the Capitol when crowd of people tried to enter the restricted area.
Hundreds of people who did not participate in the destruction or violence were charged with trespassing in the Capitol. Others were charged with felonies, including beating the police for conspiracy.
Biden is not the first to consider such a preemptive pardon.
In 1974, President Gerald Ford granted a “full, free and absolute pardon” to his predecessor, Richard Nixon, over the Watergate scandal. He believed that a possible trial would “produce a prolonged and divisive debate” and that Nixon had “already paid an unprecedented penalty by resigning from the highest elected office in the United States.”
