Posted on 01/12/2025 3:41:29 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
WASHINGTON — President Biden says he is still considering whether to give pardons to people who have been criticized or threatened by President-elect Donald Trump.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Biden said he and his aides were playing close attention to rhetoric from Trump and his allies about his political opponents and those involved in his various criminal and civil woes.
“It depends on some of the language and expectations that Trump broadcast in the last couple days here as to what he’s going to do,” Biden said. “The idea that he would punish people for not adhering to what he thinks should be policy related to his well-being is just outrageous.”
Biden, long known as an institutionalist, has just days left in office, and he has been using his waning time to restore some of the transition norms broken by his predecessor and now successor. But issuing preemptive pardons — for actual or imagined offenses by Trump’s critics that could be investigated or prosecuted by the incoming administration — would stretch the powers of the presidency in untested ways.
Trump’s frequent targets include Republican Liz Cheney, the former Wyoming congresswoman, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat. They led the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. Trump has aimed particular criticism at former special counsel Jack Smith, who charged him over his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat and other alleged crimes.
Biden, who Trump has said should be jailed, scoffed at the notion that he would pardon himself. “What would I pardon myself for?” he asked incredulously. “No, I have no contemplation of pardoning myself for anything. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Trump should just shut up about what he wants to do. He’s just giving the Dems the time to prepare an opposition.
Also, Mrs. Menendez.
Biden is afraid Menendez will flip on other crooked Democrats, maybe even on the Biden family.
We ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
Anyone pardoned who have not been charged with a crime are automatically guilty of the crimes they are being pardoned for. It’s just that simple. Guilty.
😂👍
Just hire Hillary’s cleaner.
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