President Joe Biden granted pardons to prominent government officials that President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to punish, avoiding potential retaliation from his successor against those he has labeled as political enemies. Among those pardoned are retired General Mark Milley, infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci, and members of Congress and staff who were part of the select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and recommended that Trump be prosecuted for his role in the insurrection. Panel members included Liz Cheney, former Republican congresswoman from Wyoming, who helped lead the investigation, and current Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat from California, who also led the prosecution in Trump’s first impeachment trial. Former Representative Adam Kinzinger from Illinois, along with Cheney, were the only Republicans on the committee.
The president also pardoned the U.S. Capitol and DC metropolitan police officers who testified before the committee. In a statement on Monday, Biden expressed: “The granting of these pardons should not be confused with an acknowledgment that any individual committed any crime, nor should their acceptance be misinterpreted as an admission of guilt for any crime.”
Last-minute pardons have become a predictable feature of modern presidencies, with presidents waiting until their final moments in office to grant their most controversial acts of clemency. In his final hours in office during his first administration, Trump pardoned more than 70 people, including Elliott Broidy, a former Republican National Committee finance official who pleaded guilty to charges of acting as an unregistered Chinese agent. Trump's pardons were granted to individuals who had been accused of crimes, although not always convicted and sentenced, while Biden's more recent pardons cover individuals not known to be under criminal investigation.
President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden; this type of general pardons is valid but rare. Trump, in turn, has called Milley “a progressive train wreck” and “grossly incompetent,” in addition to indicating that Milley's efforts to de-escalate tensions with China after the January 6 attacks were “such an egregious act that, in times past, the punishment would have been DEATH!” Fauci led the response to Covid-19 during the Trump administration, but the President-elect and his allies have turned against him for recommending lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus.
Biden's pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, also included all crimes he may have committed in the last 11 years. This same NPR review of Trump's public statements last year found more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, or punish political opponents. Milley had been Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the Trump administration but has since called him “a fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” The panel was chaired by Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat from Mississippi.
