Biden pardons relatives and others at last minute to head off Trump’s retaliation

President Joe Biden on Monday issued a wave of preemptive pardons in his final hours in office to protect his family and other high-profile figures from a campaign of “revenge” promised by his incoming successor, Donald J. Trump. Influence.

In an extraordinary effort by the outgoing president to head off political prosecutions by the incoming president, Mr. Biden pardoned five of his family members, including his brother, James B. Gen. A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and former Rep. Liz Cheney.

“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the power 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. Baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety and financial security of targeted individuals and their families.

He added: “Even if an individual did nothing wrong and actually did the right thing and is ultimately exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can cause irreparable damage to reputation and finances. “

In addition to his brother, Mr. Biden also pardoned his sister, Valerie Biden Owens and her husband, John T. Owens, as well as James Biden’s wife, Sarah Jones Biden . He pardoned all members of the bipartisan House committee investigating 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.

In issuing preemptive pardons, Biden effectively turned the president’s constitutional power of clemency into a protective shield against what he viewed as politically motivated retaliation. No other president has used executive clemency in such a broad and public way to block a successor he believed would abuse his power, and no other president, not even Mr. Trump, has pardoned so many members of his own family.

The White House announced the pardons to the family members with less than 20 minutes left in Biden’s term as president, as he walked into the Capitol rotunda to witness Trump’s swearing-in. The pardon was a remarkable coda to Biden’s half-century in politics and underscored the president’s distrust and anger toward his predecessor and successor.

His actions are dramatic evidence of how radically the power in Washington has shifted when Trump is sworn in to succeed Biden. The day began with the outgoing president using his pardon power to protect those investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Ultimately, the incoming president pardoned nearly all of the 1,600 people charged or convicted in the attacks and commuted the sentences of 14 others.

“The innocent are pardoned in the morning and the guilty are pardoned in the afternoon,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the committee, said in an interview on Jan. 6. “It’s strange to be pardoned just because you did your job and followed your oath of office to the Constitution. But the incoming administration has been making constant threats.

Biden stressed that he was not issuing pardons because anyone pardoned had actually committed a crime. “The issuance of a pardon should not be misconstrued as an admission that any individual is guilty of any wrongdoing, nor should it be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any crime,” he said.

Trump reacted angrily while addressing lawmakers at a Capitol Hill lunch, accusing Biden of “pardoning people who have committed very serious crimes, like unelected political thug commissions,” referring to Biden members.

He called Ms Cheney a “crying lunatic” and asked: “Why should we help people like Milley?”

There is no clear precedent for Biden using the pardon power to immunize people who have not even been investigated, let alone charged or found guilty. But some legal scholars say he was within the scope of his authority.

The closest precedent may be in 1974, when President Gerald R. Ford pardoned his disgraced predecessor, Richard M. Nixon, even though he had not been convicted of any crime accusation. But Nixon faced the threat of prosecution from the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal, forcing him to resign, and Ford did little to hold back the future president, as Biden did.

Throughout last year’s campaign, Trump threatened to sue Democrats, election workers, law enforcement officials, intelligence officials, journalists, his own former staff and Republicans who did not support him, often without naming any specific crimes. Activity.

Trump said he would “appoint a real special prosecutor to go after” Biden and his family. Biden previously issued a pardon to his son Hunter, which covered any crimes he may have committed within 11 years. The president did not include himself in the preemptive pardons announced Monday, but he may be able to count on immunity granted to him by the Supreme Court last year in cases brought by Trump to avoid prosecution.

Trump said on social media that Ms. Cheney, a Wyoming Republican who helped lead the Jan. 6 committee, “should be prosecuted for what she did to our country” and that the entire committee “should be held accountable for their actions.” be prosecuted.” Lies and, frankly, treason! He said General Milley, Trump’s appointee as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should be executed because he called his Chinese counterpart after January 6 to warn Beijing not to exploit the crisis in Washington.

Dr. Fauci, who has served 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 highly criticized by Trump for his response to the coronavirus pandemic. Attacks from right-wing allies. Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former strategist, said Dr. Fauci, General Milley and others should be prosecuted. “You deserve what we call rough Roman justice, and we’re ready to deliver it to you,” Bannon said on election night.

Some of those who received pardons expressed their gratitude publicly.

Milley said in a statement: “For forty-three years, I have faithfully served our country, protected and defended the Constitution, and I no longer want to spend the remaining time the Lord has given me fighting against those who unjustly seek revenge. “A statement. “I don’t want to subject my family, friends and those I serve with to the distraction, expense and anxiety this will cause.”

Dr. Fauci similarly pointed to his long career in public service and noted that he has been under constant threat of politically motivated prosecution. “These threats are absolutely unfounded,” he said in his statement. “Let me be completely clear: I have committed no crime and there is no basis for any charges or threats of criminal investigation or prosecution against me.

He added: “However, the fact is that the mere expression of these baseless threats, and the possibility of action on them, would cause immeasurable and intolerable pain to me and my family.”

In recent days, some of those pardoned have said they do not want a pardon, including former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Sen. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., both of whom were members of the Jan. 6 committee With Ms. Cheney.

“Once you get a pardon, it becomes like you committed something,” Kinzinger said on CNN this month. Schiff said in a separate interview with CNN Said it would set a bad precedent. “I don’t want to see every president in the future issuing broad pardons to members of his administration when he leaves office,” he said.

But since pardons for committee members are for a class of people rather than named individuals, they do not require recipients to accept them. Committee members issued a statement on behalf of Chairman Ms. Cheney and Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., thanking Mr. Biden. “We are pardoned today not because we broke the law, but because we upheld the law,” they said.

Other members of the committee to receive pardons from Biden on Jan. 6 include Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Pete Aguilar of California, as well as former Reps. Stephanie Murphy of Florida and Elaine Lew of Virginia. Leah, they’re both Democrats.

Michael Fanone, one of the police officers pardoned, said he did not expect a pardon and had never spoken about it with anyone at the White House, but expressed anger and frustration that Biden felt the need to grant him clemency.

“It’s crazy that we live in a country where the president of the United States feels the need to preemptively pardon Americans,” said Fanone, who fought hand-to-hand with rioters on January 6. The insurrection was instigated by the incoming president because he promised to exact or exact revenge on these actors and the agencies investigating them.

Lawyers for Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonnell, two police officers who have been outspoken about the Jan. 6 attack, said their prosecution was “never sought.” pardon without any consultation with the White House.”

Their attorneys, Mark S. Zaid and David H. Laufman, said, “The continued threats and attacks from the far right, as well as the rewriting of the truth about the events of that day, It is “disturbing” to regrettably justify this decision.

Among Biden relatives pardoned, James Biden is closely watched by Republicans. In June, congressional Republicans formally asked the Biden Justice Department to charge James and Hunter Biden with lying to Congress in sworn testimony as part of the Republican impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

Last week, Rep. James R. Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, asked Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, to take up the matter. James Biden was involved in some of Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings that are the subject of an impeachment inquiry and subject to scrutiny by the FBI and Internal Revenue Service, but he has not yet been charged with any crime.

Biden’s pardons do not extend to a variety of other potential Trump targets, including federal and state prosecutors who have accused the incoming president of trying to overturn the 2020 election, mishandling classified documents and charging an adult with a cover-up. Convicted of paying hush money.

Biden also commuted the sentence of Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of the 1975 killing of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Mr. Biden said Mr. Peltier, 80, would likely spend the rest of his time at home.

The outgoing president also pardoned two Democratic politicians: former South Carolina city councilman Ernest William Cromartie and Kentucky congressman Gerald G. .Lundergan).

Report contributors: Helen Cooper, Michael Schmidt, Devlin Barrett, Kenneth P. Vogel and Luke Broadwater.