Biden in Final Hours Pardons Cheney, Fauci and Milley to Thwart Reprisals

Biden in Final Hours Pardons Cheney, Fauci and Milley to Thwart Reprisals


President Biden moved just hours before leaving office on Monday to guard some of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s most high-profile adversaries against a promised campaign of “retribution” by issuing pre-emptive pardons to head off politically driven prosecutions.

Among those receiving the pardons were Gen. Mark A. Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the longtime government scientist; and all the members of the bipartisan House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including former Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming.

“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics,” Mr. Biden said in a statement. “But these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing. Baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety and financial security of targeted individuals and their families.

“Even when individuals have done nothing wrong — and in fact have done the right thing — and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances,” he added.

In issuing the pre-emptive pardons, Mr. Biden effectively turned the president’s constitutional power of forgiveness into a protective shield against what he maintains would be politically motivated vengeance. No other president has employed executive clemency in such a broad and overt way to thwart a successor he believes would abuse his power.

His action offered a dramatic testament to how radically power will shift in Washington at noon when Mr. Trump takes the oath to succeed Mr. Biden. In the morning, the outgoing president used his pardon authority to protect those who investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. In the afternoon, the incoming president has said he will pardon many of those who mounted the attack.

Mr. Biden emphasized that he did not issue the pardons because any of the recipients actually committed crimes. “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 said.

Throughout his campaign last year, Mr. Trump threatened to prosecute Democrats, election workers, law enforcement officials, intelligence officials, reporters, former members of his own staff and Republicans who do not support him, often without identifying any specific criminal activity.

General Milley, Ms. Cheney and Dr. Fauci were among those singled out by name by Mr. Trump and his allies. Mr. Biden also extended pardons on Monday to the entire staff of the Jan. 6 investigating committee as well as to the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department officers who testified during the inquiry.

Mr. Trump has said he would “appoint a real special prosecutor to go after” Mr. Biden and his family. Mr. Biden previously issued a pardon to his son Hunter that covered any possible crimes over an 11-year period, but the president did not include himself or any other members of his family in the pre-emptive pardons announced on Monday.

Ms. Cheney did not immediately react to the pardons, but General Milley and Dr. Fauci publicly thanked Mr. Biden.

“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,” General Milley said in a statement. “I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety.”

Dr. Fauci likewise pointed to his long career in public service and noted that he had been the subject of politically motivated threats of prosecution. “There is absolutely no basis for these threats,” he said in his own statement. “Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me.

“The fact is, however, that the mere articulation of these baseless threats, and the potential that they will be acted upon, create immeasurable and intolerable distress for me and my family,” he added.

Not everyone targeted by Mr. Trump welcomed pardons, arguing that accepting them would give the impression that they had done something wrong.

“As soon as you take a pardon, it looks like you are guilty of something,” former Representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois who served on the Jan. 6 committee along with Ms. Cheney, said on CNN this month.

“I am guilty of nothing besides bringing the truth to the American people and, in the process, embarrassing Donald Trump. Because for 187 minutes, he sat there and did absolutely nothing and showed how weak and scared he truly was,” he added, referring to the former president’s inaction during the attack on Jan. 6. “So no, I don’t want it.”

Others said it would be an inappropriate use of the pardon power. “It would be the wrong precedent to set,” Senator Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California, who led the prosecution during Mr. Trump’s first impeachment trial and also served on the Jan. 6 committee, said on CNN this month. “I don’t want to see each president hereafter on their way out the door giving a broad category of pardons to members of their administration.”

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Kinzinger and Mr. Schiff ultimately agreed to their pardons but since the pardon for the committee members was issued to a category of people rather than to named individuals, it did not require recipients to accept them.

Michael Fanone, one of the police officers covered by the pardon, said he did not want a pardon and never spoke with anyone from the White House about it, but expressed anger and dismay at the fact that Mr. Biden felt compelled to grant him clemency.

Mr. Fanone, who engaged in hand-to-hand combat with rioters on Jan. 6, said it was “insane that we live in a country where the president of the United States feels the need to offer a pre-emptive pardon to American citizens who testified in an investigation regarding an insurrection which was incited by the incoming president because he’s promised to enact, or exact, vengeance on those participants and the body that investigated them.”

Lawyers for Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonnell, two police witnesses who have been outspoken about the Jan. 6 attack, said the pardons for them “were never sought, nor was there any consultation with the White House.”

Their lawyers, Mark S. Zaid and David H. Laufman, called it “disturbing” that the “continuing threats and attacks by the extreme right, along with the rewriting of the truth surrounding that day’s events, sadly justifies the decision.”

Mr. Biden’s use of the pardon power to immunize people who have not even come under investigation, much less been charged or convicted of a crime, has no clear precedent. But some legal scholars have said that he is within the boundaries of his authority. The closest precedent might be President Gerald R. Ford’s pardon of his disgraced predecessor, Richard M. Nixon, in 1974 even though he had not been charged with any crimes.

But Mr. Nixon faced a real threat of prosecution from a special counsel investigating the Watergate scandal that forced his resignation, and Mr. Ford was not acting to thwart a future president the way Mr. Biden is.

Mr. Trump has said on social media that Ms. Cheney “should be prosecuted for what she has done to our country” and that the whole Jan. 6 committee “should be prosecuted for their lies and, quite frankly, TREASON!” He has suggested that General Milley deserved execution because he called a Chinese counterpart after Jan. 6 to warn Beijing against taking advantage of the crisis in Washington.

Dr. Fauci, who served in government for half a century and as the nation’s top infectious disease expert for 38 years under multiple presidents of both parties, was targeted by Mr. Trump’s far-right allies for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former strategist, has said that Dr. Fauci, General Milley and others should be prosecuted. “You deserve what we call a rough Roman justice, and we’re prepared to give it to you,” Mr. Bannon said on election night.

In addition to Ms. Cheney, Mr. Kinzinger and Mr. Schiff, other members of the Jan. 6 investigating committee covered by Mr. Biden’s pardon include: Representatives Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi, Zoe Lofgren and Pete Aguilar of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland as well as former Representatives Stephanie Murphy of Florida and Elaine Luria of Virginia, all Democrats.

Mr. Biden’s pardons did not extend to a variety of other potential Trump targets, including the federal and state prosecutors who indicted the incoming president for trying to overturn the 2020 election, mishandling classified documents and covering up hush money payment to an adult film star who claimed she had a fling with Mr. Trump.

Three of the four criminal indictments against him have now been dismissed or effectively thwarted by his election back to the presidency, but Mr. Trump’s conviction on 34 felonies from the hush money case stands, making him the first felon ever inaugurated as president.

Helene Cooper, Michael S. Schmidt and Devlin Barrett contributed reporting.



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Biden issues preemptive pardons for Milley, Fauci and Jan. 6 committee members

Biden issues preemptive pardons for Milley, Fauci and Jan. 6 committee members



Washington
CNN
 — 

President Joe Biden on Monday issued preemptive pardons for Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci and members of Congress who served on the committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, using extraordinary executive prerogative as a shield against revenge by his incoming successor, Donald Trump.

The pardons, coming in the final hours of Biden’s presidency, amount to a stunning flex of presidential power that is unprecedented in recent presidential history. They serve to protect several outspoken critics of the incoming president, including former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, whom Trump has vowed retribution against.

“These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden wrote in a statement, issued hours before he was set to welcome Trump to the White House for tea before attending his swearing-in. “Baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety and financial security of targeted individuals and their families.”

Biden had been weighing issuing the pardons in the waning days of his presidency, concerned Trump would enter office and immediately seek to prosecute his adversaries. In his statement, he spelled out his rationale, saying “alarmingly, public servants have been subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties.”

The recipients of Biden’s pardons have all faced intense criticism from Trump and his allies.

Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Disease for decades, including during the outbreak of Covid in Trump’s first presidency, and Milley served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Trump’s first term and has warned Trump is a fascist.

Biden, in his statement, noted that the pardons did not denote guilt.

“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. Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country,” he wrote.

As he weighed preemptive pardons over the past several days, the president has made clear in conversations with aides that he does not believe those who received them were guilty of any crimes – and voiced concern that pardoning them could connote guilt, according to people familiar with the conversations.

Ultimately, Biden put aside those concerns with the view that providing protection would outweigh the potential implication of guilt.

In doing so, he is taking a step that’s unprecedented in presidential history. Preemptive pardons on such a sweeping scale have never previously been issued. When President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, the 37th president was facing a real threat of prosecution. None of those on Biden’s list appeared at risk of imminent legal action, but Biden believed the threat was real enough that protection was necessary.

Multiple members of Congress who served on the committee investigating the attack on the Capitol were stunned to learn of the decision, according to multiple sources. They did not receive a heads-up that it was happening and one person said they still do not even know what the pardon is for, the sources said.

In a statement to CNN, Milley said he and his family were “deeply grateful” for Biden’s action.

“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.”

Former Capitol Hill police officer Harry Dunn expressed his thanks to Biden for the decision.

“I am eternally grateful to President Joe Biden, not just for this preemptive pardon, but for his leadership and service to this nation, especially over the last four years. I wish this pardon weren’t necessary, but unfortunately, the political climate we are in now has made the need for one somewhat of a reality. I, like all of the other public servants, was just doing my job and upholding my oath, and I will always honor that.”

Fauci added that he was “very appreciative” of the preemptive pardon, though he didn’t ask for it.

“As (Biden) said, we did nothing wrong, but the baseless accusations and threats are real for me and my family,” Fauci said.

Some of those who were issued the last-minute pardons did not get a heads up, a person familiar told CNN.

Earlier this month, the president told reporters one factor weighing in his decision is whether Trump telegraphed any of his intentions for possible prosecution of his political opponents in the days leading up to his inauguration.

“It depends on some of the language and expectations that Trump broadcasts in the last couple of days here as to what he’s going to do,” the president said when asked about what pardons and commutations he’s considering.

“The idea that he would punish people for not adhering to what he thinks should be policy as it related to his well-being is outrageous,” Biden said. “But there’s still consideration of some folks, but no decision.”

In an interview with USA Today, Biden said he told Trump during their Oval Office meeting shortly after the president-elect’s November victory that “there was no need, and it was counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores.”

Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger and California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff have said they do not want preemptive pardons.

Jesse Binnall, one of Trump’s primary private attorneys working on lawsuits related to January 6, pointed out on social media a major reason the legal community was skeptical of Biden’s preemptive pardons before Monday: It makes it easier to force testimony.

“The pardons are actually great news. No one who was just pardoned will be able to refuse to testify in a civil, criminal, or congressional proceeding based upon the 5th Amendment,” Binnall wrote.

The pardons also won’t protect those who received them from congressional investigation, or other types of investigation, such as tax inquiry, if those were to arise. The pardons would only protect them from federal criminal charges.

CNN’s Katelyn Polantz, Manu Raju, Sarah Ferris, Haley Talbot, Jamie Gangel, Dana Bash, Kaitlan Collins and Pamela Brown contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional reporting and reaction.



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Biden pardons Fauci, Milley, and members of the Jan. 6 committee

Biden pardons Fauci, Milley, and members of the Jan. 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 guard against potential “revenge” by the incoming Trump administration.

The decision by Biden comes after Donald Trump warned of an enemies list filled with those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and his role in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has selected Cabinet nominees who backed his election lies and who have pledged to punish those involved in efforts to investigate him.

“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,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”

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

“These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said, adding that “Even when individuals have done nothing wrong — and in fact have done the right thing — and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances.”

Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years and was Biden’s chief medical adviser until his retirement in 2022. He helped coordinate the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and raised the ire of Trump when he refused to back Trump’s unfounded claims. He has become a target of intense hatred and vitriol from people on the right, who blame him for mask mandates and other policies they believe infringed on their rights, even as tens of thousands of Americans were dying.

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

Biden is also extending pardons to members and staff of the Jan. 6 committee, including former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both Republicans, as well as the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the committee.

Biden, an institutionalist, has promised a smooth transition to the next administration, inviting Trump to the White House and saying that the nation will be OK, even as he warned during his farewell address of a growing oligarchy. He has spent years warning that Trump’s ascension to the presidency again would be a threat to democracy. His decision to break with political norms with the preemptive pardons was brought on by those concerns.

Biden has set the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued; he announced on Friday he would commuting the sentences of almost 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. He previously announced he was commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. In his first term, Trump presided over an unprecedented spate of executions, 13, in a protracted timeline during the coronavirus pandemic.





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