Biden pardons Fauci, Milley and members of the January 6 committee

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has 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 keep watch. against potential “revenge” from the new Trump administration.

Biden’s decision comes after Donald Trump warned against a list of enemies filled with those who antagonized him politically or sought to hold him responsible for his attempt to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat and his role in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump selected Cabinet nominees who supported his election lies and who pledged to punish those who participated in efforts to investigate him.

“The granting of these pardons should not be confused with an acknowledgment that an individual has been guilty of wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for a offense,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to these public servants for their tireless commitment to our country. »

It is customary for a president to grant pardons at the end of his term, but these acts of mercy are usually offered to ordinary Americans who have been convicted of crimes. But Biden has used his power in the broadest, most untested way possible: to pardon those who haven’t even been investigated yet. And this acceptance comes with a tacit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, even though those who have been pardoned have not been formally charged with any crime.

“These are exceptional circumstances and, in good conscience, there is nothing I can do,” Biden said, adding that “Even when individuals have done nothing wrong – and have in fact done what they was necessary – and will ultimately be exonerated, simply being the subject of an investigation or prosecution can cause irreparable reputational and financial damage.

Fauci was director of National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years and served as Biden’s chief medical adviser until his retirement in 2022. He helped coordinate the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and drew the ire of Trump when he refused to support Trump’s unfounded claims. He has become the target of intense hatred and vitriol from right-wingers, who blame him for mask mandates and other policies that they say infringe on their rights, even as dozens of Thousands of Americans were dying.

Mark Milley is the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and has called Trump a fascist and detailed Trump’s conduct during the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection.

Biden also pardons members and staff of the Jan. 6 committee, including former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both Republicans, as well as officers from the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department. Washington DC who testified before the committee.

Biden, an institutionalist, has promised a smooth transition to the next administration, invite Trump to the White House and saying that the nation will be well, even though he warned in his farewell speech against a growing oligarchy. He has spent years warning that Trump’s rise again as president would pose a threat to democracy. His decision to break with political norms by granting preemptive pardons was motivated by these concerns.

Biden set presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations granted; he announced Friday that he would commute the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. He previously announced that it was commute sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their sentences to life in prison just weeks before Trump, a strong supporter of expanding capital punishment, took office. During his first term, Trump presided over an unprecedented wave of executions, 13, in a prolonged period during the coronavirus pandemic.