Five par­dons Biden could issue before leav­ing office

Posted in Economy  •  Published by
Five pardons Biden could issue before leaving office

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden has just weeks until the clock runs out on his only term in office, but before he departs 1600 Penn­syl­va­nia Avenue NW, some are call­ing for him to par­don his fam­i­ly and pros­e­cu­tors, among oth­ers, before it’s too late.

Biden will leave the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, and he has issued sweep­ing par­dons thus far, includ­ing for fed­er­al mar­i­jua­na use con­victs and gay vet­er­ans who were kicked out of the mil­i­tary, but he could do a lot more on his way out.

HERE’S WHICH BIDEN EXECUTIVE ORDERS WILL BE THE FIRST TO GO UNDER TRUMP

Biden’s sec­ond son was con­vict­ed of three fed­er­al gun-relat­ed felony charges in June after he divulged that he had ille­gal­ly owned a gun while a drug user.

The president’s embat­tled son, 54, has also been the sub­ject of a fed­er­al crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion that dates back to 2018. In Sep­tem­ber, he plead­ed guilty to a slew of tax charges.

White House offi­cials have said the com­man­der in chief will not par­don his own son, but as the lame duck whose par­ty will not be tak­ing over the White House come Jan­u­ary 2025, Joe Biden has lit­tle to lose polit­i­cal­ly. The pres­i­dent was spot­ted Fri­day after­noon din­ing with his fam­i­ly, includ­ing Hunter Biden, at the Broth­er­hood of Thieves restau­rant in Nan­tuck­et, Mass­a­chu­setts.

2. Trump’s per­ceived ene­mies

Lawyers who brought charges against Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump over the past four years are at the top of the incom­ing president’s pay­back list, par­tic­u­lar­ly if he deliv­ers his ver­sion of “law­fare,” short for war­fare through law, against those who went after him under Biden.

Biden could proac­tive­ly par­don them ahead of any legal action under the next Trump admin­is­tra­tion.

At the top of the list is spe­cial coun­sel Jack Smith, the appoint­ed pros­e­cu­tor who, ear­li­er this week, dropped the two fed­er­al cas­es against Trump in two inves­ti­ga­tions relat­ed to 2020 elec­tion inter­fer­ence and the mis­han­dling of clas­si­fied doc­u­ments. Smith had been a thorn in Trump’s side since being appoint­ed by Attor­ney Gen­er­al Mer­rick Gar­land in Novem­ber 2022 to over­see two pre­ex­ist­ing Jus­tice Depart­ment crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions into the for­mer pres­i­dent.

Trump’s for­mer pan­dem­ic expert, Dr. Antho­ny Fau­ci, could also receive a pre­emp­tive par­don for his role atop the Nation­al Insti­tute of Aller­gy and Infec­tious Dis­eases until 2022 guid­ing the coun­try through the pan­dem­ic. Rep. Mar­jorie Tay­lor Greene (R‑GA) has said Fau­ci belongs in prison.

Sen. Ed Markey (D‑MA) urged Biden to act, not­ing the num­ber of Democ­rats Trump has threat­ened to pros­e­cute in the past, includ­ing Biden.

“If it’s clear by Jan. 19 that [revenge] is his inten­tion, then I would rec­om­mend to Pres­i­dent Biden that he pro­vide those pre­emp­tive par­dons to peo­ple because that’s real­ly what our coun­try is going to need next year,” Markey told Boston Pub­lic Radio.

Rep. Anna Pauli­na Luna (R‑FL), a staunch Trump ally in Con­gress, not­ed in a post to X that Repub­li­cans could go after a num­ber of pros­e­cu­tors and judges who have used the legal sys­tem to tar­get Trump.

“Jack Smith, Leti­tia James, Alvin Bragg, and Juan Mer­chan have weaponized the jus­tice sys­tem for polit­i­cal gain, tar­get­ing Pres­i­dent Trump to inter­fere with the elec­tion,” Luna wrote on Tues­day. “They failed. Account­abil­i­ty is com­ing!”

3. Don­ald Trump

Even though Trump will get out of the DOJ spe­cial pros­e­cu­tions, at least while he is the sit­ting pres­i­dent, he could face prob­lems in the hush mon­ey case relat­ed to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump was con­vict­ed in May, but his Novem­ber sen­tenc­ing was delayed, while a fourth case in Ful­ton Coun­ty, Geor­gia, has not been dis­missed.

Biden could fol­low the prece­dent of for­mer Pres­i­dent Ger­ald Ford, a Repub­li­can who, in 1974, par­doned his pre­de­ces­sor, Richard Nixon, for the sake of nation­al uni­ty fol­low­ing the Water­gate scan­dal. While Biden’s pres­i­den­tial par­don would not affect the state-lev­el cas­es, it would have a polit­i­cal impact.

“If he par­dons Trump, he will be remem­bered by his­to­ry for a final act of states­man­ship that brought a divid­ed Amer­i­ca togeth­er,” Marc Thiessen and Danielle Plet­ka wrote in a Wash­ing­ton Post op-ed.

Doing so could infu­ri­ate some Democ­rats, and even a small num­ber of Repub­li­cans, who feel the inves­ti­ga­tions and cas­es launched against Trump since 2021 were all for noth­ing.

4. Julian Assange

Some law­mak­ers have pushed Biden to par­don Julian Assange, the pub­lish­er and founder of the whistle­blow­er web­site Wik­iLeaks. Assange faced ret­ri­bu­tion from the U.S. gov­ern­ment for pub­lish­ing clas­si­fied infor­ma­tion and agreed to a plea deal this year for vio­lat­ing the Espi­onage Act.

In 2023, then-Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Vivek Ramaswamy said he would par­don Assange if elect­ed.

In Feb­ru­ary, Trump’s nom­i­nee to lead the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., also called for Assange’s for­give­ness and called him a “hero­ic whistle­blow­er” whose actions had defend­ed democ­ra­cy.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R‑KY) asked Biden in ear­ly Novem­ber to for­go pun­ish­ing Assange, who now resides in Aus­tralia.

Pro­gres­sive Democ­rats are push­ing Biden for sweep­ing action before Jan. 20, 2025, to free thou­sands of peo­ple incar­cer­at­ed in fed­er­al pris­ons.

Reps. Ayan­na Press­ley (D‑MA) and Jim Clyburn (D‑SC) led a let­ter to Biden this week that urged him to free count­less peo­ple in prison.

“Now is the time to use your clemen­cy author­i­ty to rec­ti­fy unjust and unnec­es­sary crim­i­nal laws passed by Con­gress and dra­con­ian sen­tences giv­en by judges,” the let­ter reads.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“So many peo­ple who are serv­ing exten­sive sen­tences today are there because of crimes that are vic­tim­less,” Clyburn said.

“That is aston­ish­ing, and it should be dealt with,” he added.