Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
“In the final minutes of his presidency, Joe Biden pre-emptively pardoned several family members, including his brothers James and Frank Biden, and sister Valerie Biden Owens. Biden said the pardons were intended to shield his family from politically motivated attacks and should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment of any wrongdoing…
“The eleventh-hour move follows another set of pardons issued to Covid response chief Anthony Fauci and members of the House 6 January riot investigation to prevent what he called ‘unjustified... politically motivated prosecutions.’” BBC
“President Donald Trump issued pardons or commutations for more than 1,500 people convicted or charged in connection with the US Capitol riot four years ago… Trump also signed an order directing the Department of Justice to drop all pending cases against suspects accused in the riot.” BBC
The left is divided about Biden’s pardons, and critical of Trump’s.
“It was bad enough that Biden pardoned his son Hunter after repeatedly promising voters he would not do so. But there were reasons to believe that Hunter Biden had been targeted for prosecution when others with a different last name would not have been… But his all-family pardons — and, by the way, they do not preclude a congressional investigation — weren’t necessary… And they give Trump cover to issue preemptive pardons to officials and family members when he leaves office…
“The other batch of Biden pardons — for the Jan. 6 committee members and for Fauci and Milley — presents a harder case. They were public officials with decades of distinguished service. Trump had already proclaimed that they should be jailed simply for doing their jobs. It is easy to imagine that his Justice Department would get that message loud and clear and to worry about the consequences for other officials doing theirs.”
Ruth Marcus, Washington Post
Others argue, “[Trump’s Executive Orders] are plain as day… He's going after the FBI for searching Mar-a-Lago. He's going after the Justice Department for prosecuting both him and the J6 rioters. He's going after anyone who fought vaccination conspiracy theories. He's going after the SEC and others for investigating crypto fraud. He's going after the FTC for pursuing antitrust actions against big tech companies…
“This is unprecedented. It's clearly the first step in looking for individuals to prosecute for the crime of doing things that upset Trump and his supporters. It's legit fascist revenge fantasy—except it's no fantasy. Biden probably should have preemptively pardoned the entire federal government.”
Kevin Drum, Jabberwocking
“Biden’s last-minute pardons were legally controversial in that they were preemptive… Trump, by contrast, moved to protect over 1,500 people who most definitely have been indicted, tried, and convicted of criminal wrongdoing…
“Biden’s list was comprised of people Trump targeted by name for investigation and prosecution during his 2024 campaign. Meanwhile, Trump opened the prison doors and expunged the record for insurrectionists who (whatever you think of them and their actions) did enjoy due process in facing accountability for the events of January 6 (unlike Trump himself, who was protected from prosecution by the U.S. Supreme Court)…
“The 47th president may understandably rage that the 46th has kept him from embarking on the full vengeance tour he seemed to contemplate in calling for a special prosecutor to ‘go after’ Biden and his family, and in describing members of the January 6 investigative committee as traitors. But the idea that Biden’s pardons were as audacious as Trump’s is itself pretty audacious.”
Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine
The right is critical of Biden’s pardons and the precedent they create.
The right is critical of Biden’s pardons and the precedent they create.
“There’s always some excuse for breaking a political norm, and claims of exceptional circumstances by Mr. Biden sound familiar. Recall, he urged Democrats to nuke the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule, because of the extraordinary need to protect voting rights and abortion access. He put the White House’s imprimatur on a plan to compromise the independence of the Supreme Court, calling it ‘critical to our democracy.’…
“These pardons will mute any public anger at Mr. Trump for pardoning some 1,500 of the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters as he did on Monday evening. We’re on record as opposing those pardons in all but exceptional cases of unfair prosecution. But with his multitude of post-election pardons, including politically motivated pre-emptive clemency, Mr. Biden has opened the gate to more abuses.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“Biden’s pardons are an epic face-plant, inconsistent with his 2020 promises to uphold the rule of law and, indeed, with his professed faith in the same justice system that prosecuted Trump. By using the pardon power as a shield to these selected parties, he implied that that the rule of law indeed was vulnerable to the kind of political influence that Trump said tainted the prosecutions against him. These last-minute pardons set a precedent for Trump to respond in kind on his way out of office in January 2029 and preemptively pardon his allies…
“Thus did an outgoing president who had come to office as a restorer of democratic norms create a dangerous new one as he departed it… As Trump begins his second term, he has a chance to end the cycle of lawfare the Democrats started. He knows better than anyone else that in 2024, at least, lawfare hurt those who waged it much more than their target. A wise man might consider this a strong argument for not repeating the mistake his foes made.”
Eli Lake, Free Press
Others argue, “The pardoning of [Biden’s family] brought an inescapable clarity to the corruption of what is known in Washington as Biden Inc… Influence-peddling has always been the favorite form of corruption in Washington, but this city has never seen the likes of the Biden family. Millions of dollars were secured from foreign sources and distributed to various Biden family members…
“Biden repeatedly lied about the influence peddling. He long denied knowing about his son’s foreign clients or business. He denied ever meeting Hunter’s clients. Later, photos and emails showed that Biden had clearly met these clients and knew about the business deals. He was fully aware that his family was cashing in on his name and various offices… The pardons, if anything, make [a congressional] investigation even more compelling for those who want answers to longstanding questions of corruption.”
Jonathan Turley, The Hill
