President Joe Biden on Monday pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, using the extraordinary powers of his office in his final hours to guard against potential “revenge” by the incoming Trump administration. The decision by Biden comes after Donald Trump warned of an enemies list filled with those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and his role in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has selected Cabinet nominees who backed his election lies and who have pledged to punish those involved in efforts to investigate him.

“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.” The pardons, announced with just hours left in his presidency, have been the subject of heated debate for months at the highest levels of the White House. It’s customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but those acts of mercy are usually offered to Americans who have been convicted of crimes. Biden has used the power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who have not even been investigated yet. The decision lays the groundwork for an even more expansive use of pardons by Trump and future presidents.

Gerald Ford granted a “full, free, and absolute pardon” in 1974 to his predecessor, Richard Nixon, over the Watergate scandal. He believed a potential trial would “cause prolonged and divisive debate over the propriety of exposing to further punishment and degradation a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing the highest elective office of the United States,” as written in the pardon proclamation.

Wino wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 10:22 am Pardon or no, they are all subject to harassment, in some form, by the traitorous orange turd until he is pushing up poisonous sumac.

featureless wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 11:57 am Biden has now pardoned his brother, sister and their spouses.

President Biden pardoned five members of his family on Monday, minutes before turning over the office of the presidency to Donald Trump. Biden said the pardons protect his family against political attacks motivated "solely by a desire to hurt me." Biden pardoned his brothers, James and Francis Biden, his sister, Valerie Biden, and their spouses.

"The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense," Biden said in a statement.

highdesert wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 12:14 pm

featureless wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 11:57 am Biden has now pardoned his brother, sister and their spouses.

Yup, Biden was busy this morning. Hunter was pardoned earlier, so the only two who didn't get pardons are Jill and their daughter.

President Biden pardoned five members of his family on Monday, minutes before turning over the office of the presidency to Donald Trump. Biden said the pardons protect his family against political attacks motivated "solely by a desire to hurt me." Biden pardoned his brothers, James and Francis Biden, his sister, Valerie Biden, and their spouses.

"The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense," Biden said in a statement.

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/20/biden- ... nald-trump

I expect Trump will be pardoning his large family before he departs the WH in 2029.

highdesert wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 9:28 am Both political parties have billionaire donors, I think transactional relationships exist for politicians who are red and blue. People don't donate to political parties to be on the right side, they donate and advocate and push their personal agendas.