Outgoing President Biden issued a string of 11th-hour pardons Monday to everyone from Dr. Anthony Fauci to members of the House panel that probed the Jan. 6 riots — a move blasted as “disgraceful’’ by President Trump.
“Many are guilty of MAJOR CRIMES!” Trump fumed to NBC News’ Kristen Welker.
Trump, still fuming during a speech in Emancipation Hall after his later inauguration, ripped the House panel’s members as the “Unselect Committee of Political Thugs” — and signaled he was preparing to pardon many people for the non-violent crimes they committed at the Capitol in January 2021.
Biden has now issued the most pardons and acts of clemency of any commander-in-chief since the late President Jimmy Carter, with at least 65 pardons in all and thousands more sentence commutations.
Carter, who died in December, pardoned roughly 200,000 Americans for dodging the Vietnam War draft.
Some of the beneficiaries of Biden’s wide-ranging pardons included the truth-challenged former chief medical adviser Fauci, embattled retired General Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — including Liz Cheney.
“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics,” Biden said in a statement. “But these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.”
Biden, 82, lauded the nation’s “dedicated, selfless public servants,” but noted they have been subjected to “ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties.”
“In certain cases, some have even been threatened with criminal prosecutions, including General Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, and the members and staff of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” the outgoing leader said.
“These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions,” he added.
Also on Biden’s preemptive pardon list was Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who was on the Jan. 6 Committee and will serve as a ranking member of the house judiciary committee in the 119th Congress.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, lambasted Biden for the pardon, slamming Raskin as someone who “will be remembered for his abuse of power, hypocrisy, consistent dishonesty, and unwavering loyalty to Joe Biden.”
Trump has apparently considered preemptive pardons for himself or family members — but never signed any — before leaving the White House after the Capitol riot following his first term in office.
Rumors had swirled for weeks after Trump’s 2024 victory that Biden’s team was pressuring him to issue pre-emptive pardons.
All those listed in Biden’s pardons have crossed him politically and elicited his wrath.
Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has publicly called Trump a “wannabe dictator” and detailed his conduct around the deadly Jan. 6 attacks during the House investigation.
In a recent book by Watergate sleuth Bob Woodward, Milley was quoted calling Trump a“fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.”
Meanwhile, Fauci, who served as Biden’s chief medical advisor until his retirement in 2022, drew ire when he repeatedly dismissed the theory that the COVID-19 virus most likely leaked from a Chinese lab.
“It feels good and I’m grateful to the president for doing it,” Fauci later told CNN about the pardon.
Republican critics in Congress have accused the 84-year-old doctor of lying to Congress on key aspects of his response to the pandemic.
For instance, he denied to Congress that under his watch, the government funneled money to EcoHealth Alliance for gain-of-function research, which essentially entails taking natural viruses and exploring ways to make them more transmissible or deadly to humans.
Both federal watchdog and congressional investigations found evidence of federal dollars going toward risky gain-of-function research at the now-infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
“If there was ever any doubt as to who bears responsibility for the COVID pandemic, Biden’s pardon of Fauci forever seals the deal,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has called for Fauci to be thrown behind bars, wrote on X in response to the clemency move.
“As Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I will not rest until the entire truth of the coverup is exposed.”
Biden also extended pardons to members of the since-defunct select House Jan. 6 committee, which includes former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both Republicans, as well as the US Capitol and DC Metropolitan police officers who testified before the committee.
The ex-committee’s former chairman, Bennie Thompson (R-Miss.), previously said he was open to receiving a pre-emptive pardon, arguing that Trump and his team had made threats about targeting members of the old panel, which had made criminal referrals against the incoming president.
Democrats had drawn attention to FBI Director-designee Kash Patel’s list of 60 so-called “deep state” actors as evidence that the incoming administration may target its rivals.
That list included Miley but not Fauci or the since-defunct Jan. 6 Committee.
Biden previously gave his troubled son Hunter Biden a “full and unconditional” pardon over a roughly 11-year period, quashing the gun and tax crimes for which two juries found him guilty.
Amid the speculation that the outgoing president was eyeing a broader slate of preemptive pardons, Democrats splintered, fretting that the move may look like an admission of guilt for those granted them.
“I think preemptive pardons seem to imply guilt,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) previously told NewsNations” “The Hill Sunday.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) also ripped into the concept of preemptive pardons.
“I am not a fan of these. I didn’t like the pardon of the president’s son. I didn’t think that that was prudent,” she told MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.“ “But I also am very concerned about what Trump is going to do with this Justice Department.”
Despite Dems’ worries, Trump has seemingly sought to defuse fears that he would pursue retribution in a second administration.
“No, I’m not doing that unless I find something that is reasonable, but that’s not going to be my decision, that’s going to be Pam Bondi’s decision and to a different extent, Kash Patel,” Trump previously told NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked about whether he would request his administration open up probes.
During that same interview, however, Trump also rattled his critics by lashing out at the since-defunct House Select Jan. 6 Committee.
“For what they did, honestly they should go to jail,” he said of the panel, which included three former reps and six sitting reps.
“No, not at all,” he replied when asked if he’d sic his FBI director on them. “I think [the two law-enforcement agencies will] have to look at that. But I’m not going to [ask]. I’m going to focus on drill baby drill.”
Biden faced swift backlash from Republicans over the spate of preemptive pardons, which was somewhat muted by Trump’s forthcoming inauguration.
“Ask yourself this: Why would Joe Biden pardon Fauci if he wasn’t a criminal who should be locked up for his lies, negligence, & greed that killed innocent Americans? Biden was already going out in shame and disgrace, but this is a new low,” activist Riley Gaines wrote on X.
“@realDonaldTrump should ignore the preemptive, blanket pardons just issued by whoever is running the Biden WH. Specifically, President Trump should immediately court-martial Milley and proceed as appropriate in criminally investigating Fauci and any one else on the Biden’s list,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, said.
“The blanket pardons issued by Biden are invalid and constitutional nullities and should be considered to have no legal force or effect.”
Meanwhile, those who were pardoned expressed gratitude for Biden’s actions in a statement Monday morning.
“My family and I are deeply grateful for the President’s action today. After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our Nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights,” Milley said in a statement.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), former Chair of the Jan. 6 Committee, issued a joint statement along with former rep. Liz Cheney lauding the decision.
“We express our gratitude to President Biden for recognizing that we and our families have been continuously targeted not only with harassment, lies and threats of criminal violence, but also with specific threats of criminal prosecution and imprisonment by members of the incoming administration,” the statement reads in part.
In Case You Missed It:
President Trump Pardons 1,500 Jan 6 Political Prisoners and Commute Sentences of 6
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