WASHTON (AP) — In one of his final acts as president, Joe Biden pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, in an extraordinary use of executive power to protect against potential “revenge” by the new Trump administration.
The decision came after now-President Donald Trump warned of an “enemies list” filled with those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and his role in the Capitol siege four years ago. Trump has selected Cabinet nominees who backed his election lies and have pledged to punish those involved in efforts to investigate him.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
The prospect of such pardons had been the subject of heated debate for months at the highest levels of the White House. It’s customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but those acts of mercy are usually offered to Americans who have been convicted of crimes.
Trump said after his inauguration that Biden had pardoned people who were “very very guilty of very bad crimes” — “political thugs,” Trump called them.
Biden, a Democrat, has used the power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who have not even been investigated. His decision lays the groundwork for an even more expansive use of pardons by Trump, a Republican, and future presidents.
The Supreme Court last year ruled that presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution for what could be considered official acts, but the president’s aides and allies enjoy no such shield. There is concern that future presidents could use the promise of a blanket pardon to encourage allies to take actions they might otherwise resist for fear of running afoul of the law.
The decision drew criticism from some lawmakers, including Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who said, “I continue to believe that the grant of pardons to a committee that undertook such important work to uphold the law was unnecessary, and because of the precedent it establishes, unwise.”
The “full and unconditional” pardons for Fauci and Milley cover the period extending back to Jan. 1, 2014. The pardon also applies to members and staff of the Jan. 6 committee that investigated the attack, as well as the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the House committee about their experiences that day.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, has become a target of intense hatred and vitriol from people on the right, who blame him for mask mandates and other policies they believe infringed on their rights. “I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights,” Fauci said.
Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called Trump a fascist and has detailed Trump’s conduct around the Jan. 6 insurrection. “I do not wish to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety,” he said.
Biden also extended pardons to Capitol police officers who testified before the committee, saying, “These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing. Even when individuals have done nothing wrong — and in fact have done the right thing — and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances.”
