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Departing US President Joe Biden has used his last day in office to protect some of Trump’s adversaries from potential revenge, granting pre-emptive pardons that will thwart any attempts by the new administration to prosecute them.
Biden announced pardons for former COVID-19 tsar Anthony Fauci, retired general Mark Milley and members of the January 6 select committee that investigated the attack on the US Capitol, including former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics,” Biden said in a statement. “But I believe these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.
The move was the latest in a series of pardons issued by the president before he leaves Washington, after a political career spanning half a century.
It comes one month after Biden sparked an angry backlash within his own ranks after pardoning his son Hunter, who was facing the prospect of jail time after being convicted for tax and gun crimes, despite saying for months he would adhere to the jury’s verdict.
Biden also recently commuted the prison sentences of almost 1500 people and pardoning another 39 Americans convicted of non-violent crimes, in the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
You can read more on Biden’s move here.
Pre-emptive pardons: Liz Cheney, Anthony Fauci and Mark Milley.Credit: AP, Bloomberg