Biden issues pre-emptive pardons for siblings, Fauci and Jan 6 riot panel
(BBC) In the final minutes of his presidency, Joe Biden pre-emptively pardoned several family members, including his brothers James, Francis 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”.
The outgoing president said: “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment.”
Donald Trump regularly clashed with Dr Fauci during the pandemic and has suggested he would take action against those who tried to hold him accountable for the 6 January Capitol riot and other “enemies from within”.
For years, Trump has levelled unproven accusations of corruption at both Biden and his family. In 2023, House Republicans launched a nearly yearlong investigation into the Biden’s, examining their business dealings abroad, but found no criminal wrongdoing.
“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me,” Biden said in a statement released as Trump arrived at the Capitol rotunda for his inauguration.
“Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”
In addition to his siblings, Biden issued pardons for his sister-in-law Sara Jones Biden and his brother-in-law John Owens.
The outgoing president had previously issued a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, who was facing sentencing for two criminal cases.
As he prepared to leave the White House, Biden also commuted the life sentence of indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who was serving a life sentence for the 1975 murder of two FBI agents. Peltier will transition to house arrest, Biden said in a statement.
On Monday morning, a Trump spokesperson has called Biden’s pre-emptive pardons “the greatest attack on America’s justice system in history”.
“With the stroke of a pen, he (Biden) unilaterally shielded a group of political cronies from the scales of justice,” Taylor Budowich, Trump’s incoming deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel said in a post on X.
“This is yet another dangerous and unreversible erosion of American norms.”
Biden also issued a pre-emptive pardon to Mark Milley, a former chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff, who last year described Trump as “fascist to the core”.
Biden’s statement said that the pardons should “not be mistaken as an acknowledgment” that any of those covered “engaged in any wrongdoing”.
Democrats had warned the outgoing president against such action. Adam Schiff, a Senator for California, said Biden could set a “precedent” for “each president hereafter on their way out the door giving out a broad category of pardons”.
