In the final moments of his term, Joe Biden pardoned five members of his family. A preventive procedure to protect them from “unfounded and politically motivated investigations”.
Final decisions before handing over power. Outgoing US President Joe Biden has decided to grant a preventive presidential pardon to five members of his immediate family.
Affected by this measure: his brothers, Francis and James Biden, his sister Valerie Biden Owens, as well as the respective spouses of the last two mentioned.
“My family has been targeted by incessant attacks and threats, motivated by the sole desire to harm me. Unfortunately, I have no reason to think that these attacks will stop,” he justified in a press release, published even as he attended the swearing-in of Donald Trump in the Capitol.
Joe Biden had already pardoned his son
Article II of the American Constitution allows the president to “grant reprieves and pardons for crimes against the United States.” And this is not the first time that Joe Biden has used this power in favor of a member of his family.
On December 2, he pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, who was awaiting sentencing in cases of illegal possession of a firearm and tax evasion. Accusations which resulted, according to the outgoing president, from attacks on the part of “his political opponents in Congress”.
-Opponents of Donald Trump also concerned
These acts allow them to avoid possible prosecution, while Donald Trump's supporters have regularly attacked and threatened Joe Biden's family. In addition to those close to him, the outgoing president also preemptively pardoned several public figures earlier in the day.
General Milley, who warned during the last presidential campaign that the Republican billionaire was a “fascist through and through” and the “most dangerous person for this country” as well as Doctor Anthony Fauci, who had widely criticized the management of the Covid-19 crisis by the Trump administration, were concerned.
Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice-President Dick Cheney and figure in the Republican opposition to Donald Trump, and all the parliamentarians who were members of the commission of inquiry into the assault on the Capitol were also pardoned by Joe Biden.
The reaction from Donald Trump's camp was not long in coming. Taylor Budowich, his new deputy chief of staff, called the outgoing president's decisions “the greatest attack on the American justice system in history” on his X account.
