U.S. President Joe Biden reacts as he speaks from the Roosevelt Room about the jobs report and the state of the economy at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 10, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
President Joe Biden on Monday issued pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, members of Congress who investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and others who he said are under threat of being “baselessly” targeted for political purposes.
The spate of preemptive pardons came hours before President-elect Donald Trump — who has called for some of his political foes to be jailed — takes office.
“These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions,” Biden said in a press release.
“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics. But these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” he said.
The departing Democratic president also said he is pardoning staff who served on the House Jan. 6 select committee and the police officers who testified before it.
Biden’s statement stressed that the pardons “should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense.”
(COMBO) This combination of file pictures created on December 5, 2024 shows (L-R) US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley on April 21, 2023 and Dr. Anthony Fauci on December 9, 2022.
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Fauci led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and was the face of the U.S. response to the deadly coronavirus pandemic, which began under Trump in early 2020. Milley served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff starting in 2019, also under Trump.
Both figures eventually became pariahs for Trump and his Republican supporters.
Trump and Fauci fell out even before the November 2020 election, as the then-president pushed back against the public health restrictions that Fauci and other experts advocated for.
Trump in 2023 accused Milley of treason after it was reported that he had called Chinese officials in the final days of the Trump administration to reassure them about U.S. political and military stability. Milley has defended that call.
“My family and I are deeply grateful for the President’s action today,” Milley said in a statement later Monday morning.
“After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our Nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights,” he said.