Before leaving, Joe Biden “preventatively” pardons several personalities… including five members of his family

Just before ceding power to Donald Trump, Joe Biden, this Monday, January 20, 2025, prevented his successor from possible personal revenge by preemptively pardoning elected officials, civil servants and five members of his family to spare them “partisan” investigations or prosecutions.

“My family was targeted by attacks”

A few minutes before the transfer of power, Joe Biden preemptively pardoned his brother James Biden, his sister Valerie Biden Owens, their respective spousesas well as his brother Francis Bidenas he did in December for his son, Hunter.

The latter, one of the favorite targets of the American hard right, was convicted in two separate cases of illegal possession of a firearm and tax evasion.

“My family has been targeted with relentless attacks and threats, motivated only by the desire to get to me – the worst kind of partisan politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to think that these attacks will stop,” argued Joe Biden.

Who are the other personalities pardoned?

Others pardoned include the former chief of staff of the armed forcesGeneral Mark Milley, and the former architect of the White House strategy against Covid-19, Doctor Anthony Fauci.

The former Republican parliamentarian Liz Cheney will also benefit from it, like all elected officials and civil servants who participated in the commission of inquiry into the assault on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, as well as the police officers who testified before this commission.

“I believe in the rule of law and I am sure that the solidity of our judicial system will ultimately prevail in political debates. But we live in exceptional circumstances and I cannot, in good conscience, do nothing,” explains the outgoing Democratic president, 82, in a press release, to justify an exceptional initiative.

Some of these servants of the state have been intimidated and “even threatened with criminal prosecution,” Joe Biden is alarmed.

Joe Biden had already announced on Friday that he had commuted a record number of nearly 2,500 sentences of those convicted of non-violent drug offenses. And in December, he had issued 39 pardons and 1,500 commutations, including 37 of the 40 death sentences handed down by federal justice.

With AFP.

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.