Posted on 01/08/2025 9:48:33 AM PST by Red Badger
The president had been reported to be considering issuing pardons to people who have not been charged with a crime.
President Joe Biden in a Jan. 5 interview confirmed that he is considering whether to issue preemptive pardons.
White House officials have said that Biden plans to issue additional pardons and commutations before his term ends.
Preemptive pardons would differ from those Biden has already issued and those issued by other presidents in their final days in office. They would protect people from prosecution for charges that have not yet been brought.
“Some of your supporters have encouraged you to issue preemptive pardons to people like Liz Cheney and Anthony Fauci ... will you do that?” USA TODAY’s Susan Page asked Biden during the interview.
The individuals suggested have drawn criticism from President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to take office again on Jan. 20.
Biden referenced a meeting with Trump at the White House in November 2024.
“I tried to make it clear that there was no need, and it was counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores,” Biden said, recounting the conversation they had.
Trump did not respond directly to that advice, according to the president.
“He didn’t. But he didn’t say, ‘No, I’m going to...’ You know. He didn’t reinforce it. He just basically listened,” Biden said.
“So you haven’t decided yet. You’re still assessing this issue?” Page asked.
“No, I haven’t,” Biden responded. “A little bit of it depends on who he puts in what positions,” Biden said. The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment. Inquiries sent to the employers of Cheney and Fauci were not returned.
Biden in late 2024 pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, whom a jury convicted of federal gun charges and who pleaded guilty to intentionally failing to pay taxes. Biden later pardoned another 39 people and commuted the sentences of some 1,500 others, including 37 death row prisoners. One individual floated as a possible preemptive pardon candidate is Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state. Clinton, who mishandled confidential emails and whose campaign funded opposition research against Trump, was included in a list compiled by Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee for FBI director. The list, Patel has said, are participants in the so-called deep state. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, has said that he does not think Biden should preemptively pardon his wife. “I hope he won’t do that,” he said during a recent television appearance on Dec. 11. A Clinton Foundation spokesperson did not return a request for comment. Biden this month awarded Cheney, who was mentioned during the interview, a Presidential Citizens Medal for her work as vice chair of a House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. Biden said Cheney and other former officials who received the medal in the ceremony had “dedicated their careers to serving our democracy” and “served in difficult times with honor, decency and ensure our democracy delivers.”
Overstepping increases the chances these preemptive pardons get challenged in court. And if one is invalidated, Hunter’s is too. Sure you want to play that game Joe?
this, not saying it has to be heads on spikes, but people have to know that their behaviour was not acceptable
He’s cheapened the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Won’t the pardons simultaneously spur AND fully justify detailed investigations of the presumed hidden wrongdoing being forgiven?
It wasn’t an example of pre-emptive pardoning where no crime has been charged yet.
12 days
‘ It wasn’t an example of pre-emptive pardoning where no crime has been charged yet’
That’s exactly what a preemptive pardon is. A pardon before being charged or convicted.
As Biden leaves the White House, he’s leaving a trail of you-know-what on the floor.
If he goes through with it, their preemptive pardon documents should be evidence in court that they knew their conduct was criminal. Pretty much wipes away a host of defenses...
Can presidential pardons get challenged in court? That would open up a whole new Constitutional can of worms.
Yes you can.
‘ Can presidential pardons get challenged in court? ’
No.
No. It is the only plenary power a President has.
Would you agree with me that we all have the presumption of innocence, so anybody who accepts a preemptive pardon of unspecified charges for "offences against the United States" can be assumed to be guilty of everything that was alleged?
Should a person who was in an office of high trust in the United States who accepts a preemptive pardon, be ostracized as persona non grata for the rest of their lives?
-PJ
No pardon for murder allowed.
This just confirms that he knows about the crimes that have already been committed.
I thought Biden was too senile to know anything besides when his next diaper change and ice cream cone was coming?
“considering”. He can’t stop lying.
The pardons have been drafted and are ready for signing.
Including one for himself.
(Godwin’s law violation incoming achtung achtung!)
These people are Hitler in the bunker, but unwilling to shoot themselves.
That person would be ostracized by conservatives, but canonized by liberals.
The only thing I might think could be challenged is whether or not the President actually issued the pardon or was it done by a staffer under the President's name, and the President is unaware or mentally incapacitated enough to not understand what was done.
The power doesn't belong to the "office-at-large," it belongs to the person. If the person is not of sound mind and cannot recall the pardon, then perhaps the pardon could be challenged as not coming from the elected President himself?
It would essentially be a fraud committed on the people of the United States, but it would be a long haul to prove it, though.
-PJ
Senile does not mean brain dead. The old pedophile is still capable of doing much evil before he leaves office or this earth.
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