In issuing preemptive pardons for members of the Jan. 6 committee, former military leaders and government officials, and family members, now ex-President Joe Biden made one final terrible decision.
Before leaving the White House, Biden issued preemptive pardons for the members and staff of the Jan. 6 committee, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, and the police officers who testified before the Jan. 6 committee. He also pardoned his brother James Biden and his wife, as well as his sister Valerie Biden Owens and her husband.
None of these people are under investigation for committing crimes, nor is there any evidence that they committed any crimes. These appear to be purely prophylactic pardons meant to protect these individuals from the threat of investigations launched by President Donald Trump, who had promised vengeance through investigation and prosecution against all of the pardoned individuals.
The Constitution grants the president with the power to pardon anyone of federal crimes, but it has almost never been used preemptively. The only true example of this is President Gerald Ford’s pardon of President Richard Nixon for all potential crimes committed in connection with the Watergate break-in and its cover-up, for which there was overwhelming evidence of Nixon’s involvement.
But Nixon did break the law, unlike the recipients of Biden’s pardons. In the statement announcing the preemptive pardons, Biden notes that they should not be seen as an admission that any crime was committed, nor should their acceptance be seen as an admission of guilt.
While these pardons may well save these people from months, if not years, of costly litigation for committing no crimes, they were a terrible idea. They create the appearance of corruption, even where none exists. To those marinating in the Trumpian conspiracy swamps, and even for those who do not closely follow politics, they look like a cover-up. Why pardon someone if they didn’t do something wrong? In feeding the conspiracy, they affirm Trump’s argument that politics is just an elite protection racket, so why shouldn’t he get to do the same?
Trump will no doubt use these pardons as justification to issue his own set of pardons to allies and cronies. He considered at the end of his first term issuing preemptive pardons to lawmakers and others who helped in his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Now, with the blessing of the Supreme Court with immunity from prosecution for official acts and Biden’s precedent, Trump can order administration officials, staff, border patrol or members of the military to break the law and receive a get out of jail free pardon. Biden left Democrats to face the easy taunt of hypocrisy if they choose to protest.
The preemptive pardons, particularly for his own family members, also fly in the face of Biden’s promise to turn the page on Trump’s personal venality and debasement of the presidency.
“It concerns me in terms of what kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world looks at us as a nation of laws and justice,” Biden said in 2020 when asked about Trump potentially issuing preemptive pardons for Republican lawmakers, administration officials, his family and himself.
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And yet Biden set just such a precedent in the plain self-interest of pardoning his family members. If it isn’t corrupt in our modern quid-pro-quo sense, it is corrupt in the classical republican sense in that he put his personal interest above the common good.
While Biden issued these pardons, Trump shares the blame. He created this situation by promising to abuse the power of the president to order investigations into his political opponents whether a crime existed or not. He fomented the political atmosphere that is rife with calls for vengeance against the “deep state” bureaucrats who betrayed the country and stabbed Trump in the back.
The pardons may protect these individuals, but they ultimately act as more kindling for Trump’s worst impulses. Others less fortunate than those who received a Biden pardon may wind up paying the price.