OAN Staff Blake Wolf
12:37 PM – Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Lame duck President Joe Biden stated that he is currently considering “preemptive pardons” to a number of individuals that he believes President-elect Donald Trump could legally “target” in his upcoming administration.
Although Biden didn’t specifically mention names, speculation is mounting regarding a potential pardon for the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, and former GOP Representative Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney’s daughter, as Biden’s presidency comes to a close.
Biden’s comments came during a recent interview with USA Today, which was released on Wednesday.
Biden claimed that he personally pleaded with Trump to avoid attempting “to settle scores” during Trump’s November visit to the White House, seemingly insinuating that the Democrat president is well aware that certain individuals have tried to hurt Trump legally and politically throughout 2024 and prior.
“I tried to make it clear that there was no need, and it was counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores,” Biden stated.
“He didn’t say, ‘No, I’m going to…’ You know. He didn’t reinforce it. He just basically listened,” Biden continued.
Biden recently pardoned 1,500 individuals in December, the most that a U.S. president has pardoned in a single day.
The outgoing Democrat president also pardoned his 54-year-old son, Hunter, who was facing sentencing on federal gun charges and tax evasion, even after pledging that he wouldn’t do so on numerous occasions. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had also promised that Biden would not be pardoning his controversial son.
Meanwhile, Biden admitted this week that he “[hasn’t] decided yet” whether he wants to issue additional pardons, adding that “a little bit of it depends on who [Trump] puts in what positions.”
Trump has previously stated that he would go after unscrupulous lawyers, political operatives, illegal voters, and corrupt elected officials who tried to interfere with the 2024 election, “which will include long term prison sentences.”
“Biden can give them a pardon if he wants to,” Trump added. “And maybe he should.”
The GOP’s incoming 47th president has appointed Pam Bondi for U.S. Attorney General, and former federal prosecutor Kash Patel to serve as the director of the FBI, although the two have yet to be confirmed. Bondi’s confirmation is set for January 14th, and she is anticipated to be granted the position.
Bondi and Patel, if confirmed, have both vowed to go after the corrupt “Deep State,” who have weaponized the justice system against Trump under the Biden administration.
“[In] the Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones,” Bondi previously declared regarding Trump’s charges. “The investigators will be investigated.”
Patel has also vowed to go after “people in the media who lied about American citizens, [and those] who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.”
“We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice,” Patel continued.
Patel previously revealed that he would “shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the ‘deep state.’”
“Then, I’d take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops. You’re cops – go be cops,” he added.
Some Democrat officials have expressed concern for Biden’s expressed interest in additional pardons due to the precedent it sets, while others believe it is necessary, based on fears that Trump could potentially go after certain corrupt individuals associated with the Biden administration.
“I think that without question, Trump is going to try to act in a dictatorial way, in a fascistic way, in a revengeful [way his] first year … towards individuals who he believes harmed him,” said Democrat Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.).
“If it’s clear by January 19th that [revenge] is his intention, then I would recommend to President Biden that he provide those preemptive pardons to people, because that’s really what our country is going to need next year,” he continued.
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