Outgoing United States President, Joe Biden, has pre-emptively pardoned Covid response chief, Anthony Fauci, and the members of the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot investigation team, to prevent what he called “unjustified… politically motivated prosecutions”.
Biden said, “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment.”
Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated this Monday, regularly clashed with Fauci during the COVID pandemic and has suggested he would take action against those who tried to hold him accountable for the January 6 Capitol riot.
Biden also issued a pre-emptive pardon to Mark Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who last year described Trump as “fascist to the core”.
Biden’s pardons cover all members of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 riot, as well as their staff members and the officers who testified.
Biden’s statement said that the pardons should “not be mistaken as an acknowledgment” that any of those covered “engaged in any wrongdoing”.
Democrats had warned the outgoing president against such action.
A Senator for California, Adam Schiff said Biden could set a “precedent” for “each president hereafter on their way out the door giving out a broad category of pardons”.
Fauci told US media that he “truly appreciated” Biden for taking action, adding that the possibility of prosecution has created “immeasurable and intolerable distress” on his family.
“Let me be perfectly clear, I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me,” he added.
General Milley, 66, thanked Biden in a statement and stated that he did not wish spend the rest of his life “fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights”.
“I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety,” he said.
President-elect Trump in December backed a call for the FBI to investigate fellow Republican Liz Cheney over her role in leading Congress probe.
The incoming president is also set to pardon some of those convicted of crimes related to the Capitol riot. “You’re going to see something tomorrow,” Trump said on Sunday about the January 6 rioters.
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