Former President Joe Biden’s decision to grant pre-emptive pardons to allies and family members in his final hours in office on Monday sets a new precedent for expanding executive power that could be difficult to reverse.
Biden broke a promise he made before taking office and granted pre-emptive pardons to families. memberIt took place Monday morning before President Trump was sworn in, along with Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and members of the Jan. 6 committee.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew Cherkasky told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the decision “sets a dangerous precedent that future administrations could use to shield political allies from the consequences of their actions.” He said it became.
“These broad and vague pardons represent an unprecedented and dangerous expansion of executive power that threatens the very foundations of law and order that our constitutional republic requires,” Cherkassky said. “Biden has effectively put these individuals above the law and beyond the reach of justice by granting blanket and prospective pardons for unspecified crimes over such a long period of time. Become.” (Related: Biden commutes sentence of yet another convicted cop killer on his way out of prison)
Biden’s I forgive cover anything crime Hunter Biden’s pardon, announced by his father in December, also begins in 2014, when he joined the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s former business partner, told the House Oversight Committee that the Biden family saw value in adding him to the board.brand”
in 2020 interview In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Biden pledged not to pardon President Trump after it was reported that he was considering granting preemptive pardons to his children.
“I have concerns about what kind of precedent this sets and how the rest of the world views us as a nation of law and justice,” Biden said. said at that time.
Q: “Are there any reactions to President Biden’s last-minute pardons?”
Trump: “I’m not going to discuss that right now. I think it’s unfortunate that he did that.” pic.twitter.com/jz8ZAOGaS9
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 20, 2025
Hans von Spakowski, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Mies III Center for Law and Justice Research, said Biden justified using preemptive pardons for “political purposes.”
“And it is important to note that President Trump may use Biden as a precedent or use Biden as a precedent to avoid the possibility of politically motivated prosecutions by a Democratic administration, as the Biden Justice Department has done for the past four years.” “If you think we’re not going to issue a precedent, you’re going to have to be pretty naive,” he said. “In some ways, this is emblematic of how Democrats eliminated the Senate filibuster on judicial nominations for short-term political gain, and ended up regretting it in the long run.”
Von Spakovsky told DCNF that the pardon may never go to court because no one is in a position to challenge it.
Richard Lempert, Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan School of Law I wrote In 2021, Brookings said a broad preemptive pardon would likely be “determined invalid.”
Lempert said, “A pardon that does not fully specify the specifics of the crime for which it is being pardoned is inconsistent with the idea that accepting a pardon is an implicit admission of guilt.” “It is difficult to say that a person who accepts a pardon admits guilt for a crime he or she has committed when it is not known what kind of misconduct was acknowledged.Furthermore, there is no judicial precedent to justify a preemptive pardon. The language appears to have pardons in mind for specific crimes.
Biden also on Friday commuted the sentences of 2,500 people, including cop killers and felons convicted of firearms felonies.
After pardoning his family, Biden also commuted the life sentence of an indigenous activist who killed two FBI agents.
In December, Biden decided to commute the sentences of all death row inmates. The list also included a child murder case and a man who killed an Ohio state trooper.
Cherkasky said pardoned people “lose the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination for the crime for which they were pardoned, potentially opening up previously closed avenues of questioning and investigation.” pointed out.
“Ultimately, President Trump may need to balance the pursuit of justice with the practical realities of governing and advancing policies for the American people,” Cherkasky told DCNF. “I predict that President Trump will exercise a liberal approach of putting the sleeping dogs to bed and focusing more on the future of our great country, rather than engaging in years of legal battles like his predecessor.” I am.”
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