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Capitol assault: Biden pardons people who could be targeted by Trump

Mr Biden’s decision comes after Donald Trump warned of an enemies list filled with people who have antagonized him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat and his role in the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. Mr. Trump chose ministers who supported his election lies and who pledged to punish those involved in efforts to investigate him.

“The granting of these pardons should not be interpreted as an acknowledgment that an individual has committed any wrongdoing, nor as an admission of guilt for any offense. Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to these public servants for their tireless commitment to our country.”

-Joe Biden by press release

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It is customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but these acts of mercy are usually offered to ordinary Americans who have been convicted of crimes. But Mr. Biden has used this power in the broadest and least tested way possible: by pardoning people who have not even been investigated yet. And this acceptance comes with a tacit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, even if those pardoned have not been formally accused of any crime.

“These are exceptional circumstances and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said, adding that “even when people have done nothing wrong – and even done what they “If necessary – and ultimately exonerated – simply being investigated or prosecuted can cause irreparable damage to their reputations and finances.”

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Mr. Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Health for nearly 40 years and was Mr. Biden’s principal medical adviser until his retirement in 2022. He helped coordinate the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and raised Trump’s ire when he refused to support the latter’s baseless claims. He has become the target of intense hatred and vitriol from people on the right, who blame him for imposing masks and other policies that they say infringe on their rights, even though that tens of thousands of Americans were dying.

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

Mr. Biden also pardons members and staff of the January 6 Committee, including former Congressmen Liz Cheney and Adam KK, as well as other committee members. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both Republicans, as well as the Capitol and Washington Metropolitan Police officers who testified before the committee.

Mr. Biden, an institutionalist, promised a smooth transition to the next administration, inviting Mr. Trump to the White House and saying the nation would get through it, even as he cautioned during his speech farewell, against a growing oligarchy. He spent years warning that Trump’s ascension to the presidency would pose a threat to democracy. His decision to break with political norms by granting preemptive pardons was motivated by these concerns.

Mr. Biden set the presidential record for the most individual pardons and commutations; he announced Friday that he would commute the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug violations. He had previously announced that he was commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their sentences to life imprisonment weeks before Mr. Trump, an outspoken supporter of the expansion of capital punishment. During his first term, Mr. Trump presided over an unprecedented wave of executions (13) in a very long period of time, during the coronavirus pandemic.

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