President Joe Biden on Monday issued preemptive pardons to a slew of high-profile targets of President-elect Donald Trump — a striking last-minute effort to shield them from prosecution just hours before Trump, who has promised to punish his perceived enemies, is sworn in.
Biden issued the sweeping pardons to former public health official Anthony Fauci and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley. He also pardoned the members and staff of the House special committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection as well as officers from Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police who testified before the committee. All of Monday’s pardon recipients have been attacked at length by Trump, despite no proof of illegal conduct.
The move, coming in the waning moments of Biden’s more than five-decade political career, is a final condemnation of Trump on the brink of a new political era in Washington that will see the president-elect exert near total dominance.
