President Biden previously pledged that he would not issue preemptive pardons before leaving office, telling CNN that he would take a "totally different approach" to the justice system compared to then-President Trump. In December 2020, CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked Biden if he was concerned about rumors that Trump would dole out a wave of preemptive pardons for some of his closest confidantes. "Well, it concerns me in terms of what kind of precedent it sets in how the rest of the world looks at us as a nation of laws and justice," he said.