My fellow Americans –
In his final hours as president, Joe Biden pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and the lawmakers and staff who served on the January 6 committee. He also issued pardons to a number of his own family members, in addition to the previous pardon of his son Hunter.
These are all preemptive pardons, for unspecified crimes that those receiving the pardons have not actually been convicted of or even charged with.
This is a cowardly act. After years of lawfare against President Trump, and after expressing his displeasure over his attorney general’s failure to put Trump in prison before the 2024 election, Biden explained the pardons by saying this:
“Baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families.”
Even making allowances for the man’s senility, that is one of the most brainless statements I’ve ever heard.
The central theme of the 2024 Democratic campaign was that Democrats are the defenders of democracy. They trust our judicial system, judges and juries, they respect the rule of law, not like Trump, who wants to destroy our sacred American institutions.
On May 31, 2024, Joe Biden — or whoever operates the Joe Biden account on X — posted “No one is above the law.”
Except Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley, everyone involved with the January 6 committee, and anyone named Biden.
Although he waited until the last possible moment to do it, almost as he was walking out of the White House for the final time, Biden had to give expansive pardons to his family members to prevent investigation into crimes related to influence-peddling.
Because Hunter Biden already has a sweeping pardon covering all of his activities over an 11-year period, he no longer has a Fifth Amendment privilege from self-incrimination. He could not refuse to testify about the potentially criminal activities of others.
Biden also said in issuing the pardons that they “should not be mistaken as an acknowledgement that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,”
The Supreme Court’s opinion in Burdick v. United States stated that a pardon carries “an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it.” The Court also held that a pardoned person could reject a pardon, but no one pardoned by Biden has exercised that option.
Adam Kinzinger, one of the J6 committee members has said, he would reject a pardon, but to my knowledge, has not done so.
It’s an appropriate end to the Biden administration: everyone slinking off into the sunset, refusing to take responsibility for anything they’ve done.
