US President Joe Biden has pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, Liz Cheney and members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol, as well as retired general Mark Milley, to protect himself from potential retaliation from Donald Trump's new administration.
Biden's decision came after Trump warned of an enemies list filled with those who opposed him politically or tried to hold him accountable for trying to patch up his 2020 election loss and his role in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. 2021.
Trump chose Cabinet nominees who supported his election lies and pledged to punish those involved in his investigation.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be confused with an admission that any person has committed any wrongdoing, nor should their acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any crime,” he added. Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes our officials a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
It is customary for a president to grant a pardon at the end of his term, but such acts of mercy are usually offered to ordinary Americans who have been convicted of crimes.
But Biden has used his power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who haven't even been investigated yet. And with acceptance comes a tacit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, even if those who are pardoned have not been formally charged with any crime.
“These are exceptional circumstances and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said, adding that “even if a person did nothing wrong — and in fact did the right thing — and is ultimately acquitted, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreversibly damage your reputation and finances.”
Biden cites threats and intimidation
Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years and was Biden's chief medical adviser until his retirement in 2022. He helped coordinate the country's response to the Covid-19 pandemic and raised Trump's ire when he refused to endorse Trump's baseless claims.
He has become the target of intense hatred and vitriol from right-wingers who blame him for mask mandates and other policies they say violate their rights even as tens of thousands of Americans have died.
Fauci said he appreciated Biden's gesture.
“I have not committed any crime … and there is no basis for any charges or threats of investigation or prosecution against me,” Fauci told ABC News.
Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Trump a fascist and detailed Trump's handling of the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection.
Since leaving office, Trump has directed his anger at Milley in social media posts and speeches over alleged misconduct, at times using vulgar language and even suggesting that the military leader had committed high treason. Milley said yes he had to take safety measures before retiring.
US President Joe Biden is reportedly considering granting advance pardons to prominent critics of Donald Trump, including Dr. Anthony Fauci to protect them from potential retaliation once Trump takes office.
“I do not want to spend the remaining time the Lord has given me fighting against those who would unfairly seek revenge for perceived slights,” Milley said in a statement. “I don't want to subject my family, friends and those I served with to the resulting distractions, expenses and anxiety.”
Biden, in his statement on Monday, cited how pardoned government officials faced “continuous threats and intimidation for faithfully performing their duties.”
Biden is also granting pardons to committee members and staff on Jan. 6, including former House members Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both Republicans who angered Trump's base by agreeing to join a bipartisan group that included seven Democrats led by committee chairman Bennie Thompson. Biden's pardon also applies to police officers at the Capitol and the Washington Capitol who testified before the committee.
Earlier this month, Kinzinger told CNN that while he understood Biden's rationale for a potential pardon, he had no personal interest in receiving one.
“When you accept a pardon, it will look like you are guilty of something,” he said. “I am guilty of nothing except exposing the truth to the American people and embarrassing Donald Trump in the process.”
Trump suggests his own pardon
Biden has warned for years that Trump's return to the presidency would be a threat to democracy. His decision to break with political norms through preemptive pardons was driven by these concerns.
Biden set a presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued, and the list included a pardon for his son Hunter. The president announced Friday that he would commute the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes.
Biden earlier announced he would commute the sentences of 37 of 40 people on federal death row, commuting their sentences to life in prison just weeks before Trump, an outspoken supporter of expanding the death penalty, took office. During his first term, Trump presided over an unprecedented 13 executions as the coronavirus pandemic continued.
Trump, when he took office on Monday, considered pardoning some of those convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, siege, sometimes calling them “political prisoners” in the past. J.D. Vance, Trump's vice president-elect, said those responsible for the violence during the Capitol riot “clearly” should not be pardoned.
More than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the siege, which left more than 100 police officers injured and lawmakers in hiding. A Trump supporter was shot and killed inside the Capitol as a mob of people tried to enter the restricted area.
Hundreds of people who did not participate in the destruction or violence were charged with misdemeanors for illegally entering the Capitol. Others were charged with crimes including assault in connection with the beating of police officers. The leaders of the extremist groups Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Biden is not the first to consider such a pre-emptive pardon.
President Gerald Ford granted a “full, free and absolute pardon” to his predecessor Richard Nixon in 1974 over the Watergate scandal. He believed that a potential trial “would result in a lengthy and divisive debate” and that Nixon had “already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing the highest elected office in the United States.”