Biden pardons Fauci, Jan. 6 committee members

President Joe Biden on Monday issued preemptive pardons for dozens of people hours before President-elect Donald Trump was scheduled to be sworn in for his second term. Trump has repeatedly threatened to prosecute his political rivals. Biden issued the pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol, and officers from the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. In a statement Monday, Biden said the pardons should not be taken to be an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. He meant to protect them from politically motivated prosecutions, Biden said.

Fauci served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly four decades. He helped coordinate the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic and later served as Biden’s chief medical adviser until he retired in 2022.

Milley is the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump. The retired general criticized Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign.

Who else has Biden protected? While his presidency ran down, Biden on Sunday signed pardons for five more individuals including advocates for gun violence prevention, and criminal justice reform. Biden also pardoned Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, who was convicted of a nonviolent drug offense in 1994, and posthumously pardoned a black nationalist, Marcus Garvey, who was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s. Last month, Biden pardoned his son Hunter after promising not to shield him from prosecution.

During his time in office, Biden commuted the sentences of thousands of people, the most of any president. The actions were intended to reduce sentencing disparities among black people and those convicted of drug offenses, according to the White House. He also pardoned more than 70 people. 

Dig deeper: Read R. Albert Mohler Jr.’s opinion piece about the end of Biden’s presidency.