Washington — President Biden announced early Monday before leaving office that he would be preemptively pardoning several people who could be targeted with President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark A. Milley and members of the House Jan. 6 committee and their staff.
“These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions,” Mr. Biden said in a statement.
The president noted that the 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 that the nation instead “owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
Mr. Biden outlined the service of Fauci, who worked for decades as the nation’s top infectious disease expert; Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and the members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and their staff, who the president said worked with “integrity and a commitment to discovering the truth.” The individuals have all been the subject of GOP ire, and threats of retribution for perceived wrongdoings.
The president said he believes in the rule of law and is “optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics.” But he added that “these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.”
Speculation about the possibility of preemptive pardons for members of the Jan. 6 committee has circulated in recent days. Trump has accused members of the committee of destroying evidence and committing “a major crime” during their investigation. He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” last month that “everybody” who served on the committee “should go to jail.”
But Rep. Bennie Thompson, who led the Jan. 6 committee, told CBS News last week that he would accept a preemptive pardon, saying that “if for Bennie Thompson, that is something that’s offered to me, I will accept it.”
“Because there are a lot of people who take this person at his word, and I don’t want him to weaponize (the) government against people for doing their job,” Thompson said.
Still, other members of the committee have said they were not in favor of pardons. “We didn’t do anything wrong,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, a Democrat of California.
Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said he understands “understand the theory behind it because Donald Trump has clearly said he’s going to go after everybody,” but he added “the second you take a pardon, it looks like you’re guilty of something.”
“I’m guilty of nothing besides bringing the truth to the American people and in the process, embarrassing Donald Trump,” Kinzinger told CNN.
The panel’s other Republican, former Rep. Liz Cheney, had been the subject of Trump’s ire since her work on the committee, with Trump successfully backing a primary challenger. During the campaign, Trump called her a “war hawk” and a “stupid person,” and said “let’s see how she feels about it, you know when the guns are trained on her face.”
Mr. Biden awarded Cheney and Thompson with the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second-highest civilian award, at a ceremony at the White House this month.
As for Milley, he said in a statement after Mr. Biden’s announcement Monday that he and his family “are deeply grateful for the President’s action today.”
“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.
The move comes as the president has in recent weeks made more individual pardons and commutations than any other President in history, commuting the sentences of around 1,500 people and pardoning nearly 40 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes in December, along with commuting the sentences of almost 2,500 people on Friday.
Mr. Biden was criticized in December when he issued a sweeping, preemptive pardon of his son Hunter for any crimes Hunter Biden may have committed from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024. Hunter Biden was convicted in June of three separate felony charges related to his purchase of a revolver in 2018 when he was battling an addiction to illegal drugs, which he lied about on paperwork to obtain the gun. He also pleaded guilty to nine tax evasion charges in a separate case in September.
contributed to this report.
