President Joe Biden’s senior aides are considering the merits of issuing preemptive pardons for a range of current and former officials who President-elect Donald Trump may target, sources familiar with the discussions told Politico. Fears that Trump will seek vengeance on his political foes have been heightened by the nomination of figures like FBI director-designate Kash Patel, who has threatened to “come after” people in government and the media alike, whether “criminally or civilly,” citing false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
People under consideration for a pardon include Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., two leading members of the House of Representatives’ now-dissolved Jan. 6 committee. Trump once suggested that Cheney “should go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!” Another prominent figure being discussed is Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who became a frequent target of attacks from Trump and MAGA world during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pardon conversations were spurred by rhetoric from Trump and his allies and by lobbying from congressional Democrats, not from those who might be pardoned. White House officials are concerned that such pardons could suggest impropriety, only fueling Trump’s rhetoric against the so-called “deep state,” and because those offered preemptive pardons may reject them.
“I would urge the president not to do that,” Schiff said, referring to the pardons. “I think it would seem defensive and unnecessary.”
Other members of Congress have publicly pleaded for Biden to issue blanket pardons. “This is no hypothetical threat,” Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Penn., said in a statement. “The time for cautious restraint is over. We must act with urgency to push back against these threats and prevent Trump from abusing his power.”
The concern over a Trump White House’s quest for revenge was underscored by the surprise pardon of Hunter Biden, the president’s son, earlier this week. Some Democrats have urged President Biden to offer the same clemency not only to political figures towards whom Trump bears a grudge, but also to less privileged individuals jailed for nonviolent offenses.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., invoked Hunter Biden’s pardon this week in calling for the case-by-case pardon of “working-class Americans in the federal prison system whose lives have been ruined by unjustly aggressive prosecutions for nonviolent offenses.”
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