President Joe Biden on Monday issued preemptive pardons to several of his family members, Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.), former coronavirus czar Anthony Fauci, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and multiple other Trump critics, breaking yet another pardon-related promise as he leaves the White House.
Biden had said before taking office that he wouldn’t issue preemptive pardons, as speculation swirled that Trump could preemptively pardon his family members at the end of his first term.
“It concerns me in terms of … how the rest of the world looks at us as a nation of laws and justice,” Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper in December 2020. “You’re not going to see in our administration that kind of approach to pardons.”
Yet Biden issued a flurry of preemptive pardons for his siblings and their spouses moments before leaving office.
Those include his brothers, James Biden and Frank Biden, and sister, Valerie Biden Owens.
James Biden was closely involved in Hunter Biden’s foreign business ventures. The Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy paid the Bidens more than $5 million in 2017 for consulting and legal services that have since come under scrutiny by federal and congressional investigators.
Biden was in the Capitol for Trump’s inauguration when the pardons for his family members were announced.
Biden preemptively pardoned Cheney along with other members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riots. He also issued blanket pardons to Milley and Fauci. Biden issued “full and unconditional” pardons to the committee members “for any offenses against the United States” arising from their work on the committee, according to the decree. The pardons for Fauci and Milley are retroactive to Jan. 1, 2014, and cover any actions related to their official duties.
“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics,” said Biden. “But these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.”
It’s the broadest use of preemptive pardons in presidential history and marks yet another broken pledge for the outgoing president. Biden pardoned his son Hunter last month on the eve of his sentencing for felony gun and tax evasion charges. Biden and White House officials had said on numerous occasions that the younger Biden would not be pardoned.
Biden’s pardon includes all Jan. 6 committee members, including Sen. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R., Ill.), Rep. Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), and others.
Some recipients, such as Kinzinger and Schiff, have said they did not want a Biden pardon.
“The second you take a pardon and it looks like you’re guilty of something,” Kinzinger said this month. “So no, I don’t want it.”
Schiff said a preemptive pardon would set “the wrong precedent.”
“I don’t want to see each president hereafter on their way out the door giving out a broad category of pardons,” he said this month.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said in Dec. 2020 that preemptive pardons would be “a gross abuse of the presidential pardon authority.”
Biden said Monday’s round of pardons is warranted because the recipients have been subjected to “baseless and politically motivated” attacks from Trump and his allies.
“Even when individuals have done nothing wrong—and in fact have done the right thing—and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances,” said Biden.
Trump has repeatedly called for investigations into the members of the Jan. 6 commission, which investigated whether Trump provoked the Capitol riots. He has called for Milley, a vocal Trump critic, to be charged with treason after Milley reportedly told the Chinese that he would give them advance notice in the event of an American attack.
Trump has criticized Fauci over the handling of COVID-19, and many of Trump’s supporters have accused Fauci of lying about the origins of the pandemic.
“I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said.
Biden also pardoned Leonard Peltier, a former member of the radical American Indian Movement who was serving a life sentence for murdering two FBI agents in 1975.
