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Senior Democrats and former President Bidenhimself, warned of a blanket, preemptive pardon before Biden ultimately issued passes to Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley and their family members at the 11th hour of his administration.
“The precedent of a blanket pardon, a preemptive blanket pardon on the way out of an administration, I think is a precedent that we don’t want to set,” now-Sen. Adam Schiff warned on ABC’s “This Week” in December.
Biden ended his term in the Oval Office on Monday when President Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. But just hours before the inauguration, the White House announced pardons for both Fauci and Milli, as well as those involved in the special committee’s investigation on Jan. 6 — though those individuals were not named.
And just 22 minutes before leaving office, Biden also pardoned his family, including brother James B. Biden, sister of Valerie Biden Owens, brother-in-law of John T. Owens and brother Francis W. Biden. The former president previously pardoned his adult son. Hunter Bidenafter he was convicted in two separate federal cases last year.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the president. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“My family has been subjected to incessant attacks and threats motivated solely by the desire to hurt me – this is the worst kind of party politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe that these attacks will end,” Biden said in a statement pardoning his family. .
Speculation has grown that Biden will issue blanket pardons and preemptive pardons to those deemed Trump’s political enemiessuch as former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, as well as Millie and Fauci and members of the Biden family.
Democrats from former President Bill Clinton to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., warned Biden against such pardons in the final days of his administration.
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Former President Bill Clinton speaks on stage on December 4, 2024. in New York. (Yugen Galagursky/Getty Images for The New York Times)
“If President Biden wanted to talk to me about it, I would talk to him about it. But I don’t think I should give public advice about the right of pardon. I think it’s also — it’s a very personal thing, but it — I hope he doesn’t do that.” Clinton said of preemptive pardons on “The View.”
Senator Dick Durbin speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, December 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin also warned against such pardons in an interview with CNN last month, noting, “when we talk about a preemptive pardon, where does it begin and where does it end?”
Klobuchar echoed that sentiment the same month.
Senator Amy Klobuchar warned against preemptive pardons. (Drew Ungerer/Getty Images)
“I’m not a fan of it (prior pardons),” she said. “I did not like the pardon of the president’s son. I didn’t think it was smart. But I’m also very concerned about this idea of preemptive pardons.”
Biden also warned against preemptive pardons before he took office in 2020, amid speculation that Trump would pardon his children and personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.
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“I’m concerned about the precedent this sets and how the rest of the world views us as a nation of law and justice,” Biden told CNN in December 2020.
In the end, Trump did not pardon his grown children or the former mayor of New York.
President Biden signs declarations on the creation of national monuments at the White House on January 14, 2025. (Kevin Deitch/Getty Images)
After the 11th-hour pardon of Milley, Fauci and the special committee staff on Jan. 6, as well as their families, political leaders and lawmakers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, issued criticism.
“One of Biden’s greatest abuses of power was the government’s enforcement of executive branch mRNA (which Florida successfully blocked). Now, on his way out the door, Biden forgives his chief henchman for this and many other abuses. The swamp is protecting its own,” DeSantis, a Republican, said Monday.
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Fauci was a national spokesperson for the nation’s response to the pandemic, including advising then-President Trump in 2020 on how to deal with COVID-19 as it swept through communities.
June 3, 2024 Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks before a select subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on the Coronavirus Pandemic in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
But his favor with the president has waned over time, with Trump accusing him and his colleague, pandemic task force adviser Dr. Deborah Birks, of being “two self-promoters who are trying to regurgitate history to cover up their bad instincts and misguided advice.”
Fauci said Monday that he appreciated the pardon, although he stressed that he “didn’t commit a crime.”
“I greatly appreciate the actions that President Biden has taken today on my behalf,” Fauci told ABC News’ chief correspondent in Washington. Jonathan Carl.
“Let me be absolutely clear, John, I have committed no crime, you know that, and there is no possible basis for any allegations or threats of criminal investigation or prosecution against me,” he continued.
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Gen. Mark Milley speaks during a press conference at the Pentagon on July 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also has a contentious relationship with Trump and his supporters. Ahead of the November election, he called Trump a “fascist” and “the most dangerous person for this country.”
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Trump has repeatedly criticized Milley since leaving office, including after the failed withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan in 2021, when he called Milley “a loser who embarrassed us in Afghanistan and elsewhere!”
After the election, Milley backtracked on his characterization of Trump as a “fascist,” saying America would “be fine” under a second Trump administration.
Rep. Liz Cheney during her primary party on election night in Jackson, Wyoming, on August 16, 2022. (Reuters/David Stubbs)
Liz Cheney, a former Republican congresswoman from Wyoming, and Mississippi Democrat Benny Thompson, chairman of the House Select Committee on Jan. 6, have also been the targets of Trump’s ire. Biden did not mention Cheney or Thompson by name in his statement, instead pardoning “staff members who served on the special committee.”
Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025. (Trump-Vance Transition Team)
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“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistakenly interpreted as an admission that any individual has engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should the acceptance be misinterpreted as an admission of guilt of any crime,” Biden said in a White House statement. “Our nation is grateful to these public servants for their tireless commitment to our country.”
