Biden Issues Preemptive Pardons Before Welcoming Trump for Tea
In one of his last acts as president, Joe Biden has issued preemptive pardons to several people Donald Trump and his allies perceive to be their enemies and have threatened to criminally investigate. The pardons were issued just hours before Biden is set to welcome Trump to the White House for tea prior to the latter’s presidential inauguration.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former National Institute of Health director who helped oversee the nation’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic; retired Gen. Mark Milley, who has criticized Trump and whom Trump has suggested should be executed; and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, including former Rep. Liz Cheney, all received pardons from the outgoing president.
“These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden wrote in a statement on Monday. “Baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety and financial security of targeted individuals and their families.”
“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,” he added. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
Trump was not happy, according to Kristen Welker of NBC News, who says Trump texted her after the pardons were issued. “It is disgraceful,” he wrote. “Many are guilty of MAJOR CRIMES! DJT.”
Fauci has long been the center of Covid-19 conspiracy theories, with the right alleging — among other things — that he is the mastermind behind a nefarious plot to unleash the pandemic on the United States. Countless conservatives, including plenty of conservative lawmakers, have called for him to be investigated or worse. Trump has criticized him, as well. “People are tired of Covid. I have the biggest rallies I’ve ever had, and we have Covid,” Trump told campaign staff in October 2020. “People are saying whatever. Just leave us alone. They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots.”
Gen. Mark Milley, who retired in 2023, has long been feuding with Trump, most notably over Jan. 6. In 2023, Trump bashed Milley on Truth Social as a “a Woke train wreck,” while raging about a call Milley made to reassure a Chinese general in the wake of the Capitol attack. Milley testified that multiple Trump officials were aware of the calls, but Trump was not happy when the it was reported in Bob Woodward’s book Peril. “If the Fake News reporting is correct, [Milley] was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States,” Trump wrote. “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”
Milley was grateful for Biden’s pardon on Monday. “After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights,” Milley said. “I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety.”
Trump has also long had it out for the lawmakers who investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and who ultimately voted to refer Trump for criminal charges. He has said explicitly that these lawmakers and former lawmakers should be in jail, and reposted a meme on Truth Social that said Liz Cheney is guilty of treason and suggested she should be subject to a televised military tribunal.
Biden notably has not yet issued pardons to former Special Counsel Jack Smith, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, or anyone else directly involved with the criminal investigations into the incoming president.
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