WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in his final hours Use the extraordinary power of his office to be wary of potential “retaliation” from the incoming Trump administration.
Biden’s decision comes after Donald Trump warned that his list of enemies is filled with those who oppose him politically or seek to enlist him in his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and his defeat in the 2020 election. Those responsible for their role in the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
“The issuance of pardons should not be misconstrued as an admission that any individual is guilty of any wrongdoing or an admission of guilt for any crime,” Biden said in a statement. “Our country owes these public servants a debt of gratitude. debt for their tireless service to our country.”
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The pardons, announced with just hours left in his presidency, have been the subject of intense debate at the highest levels of the White House for months. It is customary for presidents to grant clemency at the end of their terms, but these clemencies are typically given to Americans who have been convicted of a crime. Biden has used that power in the broadest, most untested way: by pardoning people who haven’t even been investigated. The decision sets the stage for Trump and future presidents to use pardons more broadly.
While the Supreme Court ruled last year that the president enjoys broad immunity from prosecution for conduct deemed official, the president’s aides and allies have no such protection. There are concerns that Trump or a future president could use the promise of a blanket pardon to encourage allies to take actions they might resist for fear of breaking the law.
Trump, who took office at noon, promised to pardon many of those involved in the violent and bloody attack on January 6, 2021, which injured about 140 law enforcement officers in his first days as president.
It’s unclear whether those pardoned by Biden will need to apply for clemency or even accept the offer. Any acceptance could be seen as a tacit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, validating years of attacks by Trump and his supporters even though those pardoned have not been formally charged with any crime.
“These are extraordinary circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said, adding that “even if an individual did nothing wrong and actually did the right thing and will ultimately be punished Proving innocence simply because of an investigation or prosecution can cause irreparable damage to reputation and finances.
Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years, including during Trump’s tenure, and later served as Biden’s chief medical adviser until his retirement in 2022. Measures He stoked Trump’s ire when he resisted Trump’s untested ideas about public health. Fauci has since become the target of intense hatred and vitriol from those on the right, who accuse him of enforcing mask mandates and other policies they say violate their rights even as hundreds of thousands of people are dying.
Mark Milley is the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He later called Trump a fascist and detailed Trump’s actions during the deadly insurrection on January 6, 2021. He said he was grateful to Biden for the pardon so he no longer had to worry about “retaliation.”
Biden also pardoned members and staff of the committee investigating the January 6 attack, which was overrun by an angry, violent Trump mob that day, as well as the U.S. Capitol and Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police who testified before the committee . .
The committee spent 18 months investigating Trump and the violent insurrection on January 6, 2021. ) leader and later pledged to vote for Democrat Kamala Harris, and with her. The committee’s final report found that Donald Trump committed a “multipart conspiracy” to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to prevent his supporters from attacking the Capitol.
“Far from accepting responsibility, the perpetrators of the January 6 attack took every opportunity to undermine and intimidate those participating in the Select Committee, seeking to rewrite history, erase the stain of January 6 for partisan gain, and seek revenge, including Threatening criminal prosecution,” Biden said.
Biden’s statement did not list the names of members and staff.
“These public servants have served our country with honor and distinction and should not be the targets of unjust and politically motivated prosecutions,” Biden said.
Institutionalist Biden promised a smooth transition to the next administration, invited Trump to the White House and said the country would be fine, even as he warned of a growing oligarchy in his farewell address. He has warned for years that a re-election by Trump would pose a threat to democracy. Based on these concerns, he decided to break with political norms and implement preemptive pardons.
Biden has set a presidential record for most pardons and commutations. He announced Friday that he would commute the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes. Previously, just weeks before taking office, Trump, who has been an outspoken supporter of expanding the scope of the death penalty, announced that he would commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 inmates on federal death row, changing their sentences to life imprisonment. Trump carried out an unprecedented number of executions during his first term, 13 in total, during the long stretch of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden is not the first to consider such preemptive pardons – Trump aides considered them for him and his supporters as he tried and failed to overturn the 2020 presidential election, ultimately Leading to the violent riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In 1974, Gerald Ford granted his predecessor Richard Nixon a “full, liberal and absolute pardon” over the Watergate scandal. He argued that a potential trial would “spark a long and divisive debate over whether a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing America’s highest elected office should be further punished and demeaned,” as the pardon announcement states.
