President Biden "Preemptively Pardons" Fauci and other Probable Criminals

In a final demented act, Biden pardons powerful public officials who haven't been accused of committing crimes but probably should be.

AP just issued the following report:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, in an extraordinary use of the powers of the presidency in his final hours to guard against potential “revenge” by the incoming Trump administration.

The decision by Biden comes after Donald Trump warned of an enemies list filled with those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and his role in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has selected Cabinet nominees who backed his election lies and who have pledged to punish those involved in efforts to investigate him.

“The issuance of these 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,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”

The pardons, announced with just hours left in Biden’s presidency, have been the subject of heated debate for months at the highest levels of the White House. It’s customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but those acts of mercy are usually offered to Americans who have been convicted of crimes.

Amherst Professor of Jurisprudence Austin Sarat characterizes this action as an Unprecedented Vote of No Confidence in the New Administration. I recommend reading his essay for his interesting account of the history of the notion and practice of “preemptive pardons.” However, it seems to me that the professor sullies his historical scholarship with his biased and tendentious conclusion:

In the end, Professor Peter Shane gets it right when he says that Biden’s preemptive pardons are a response to something new and frightening in American politics: the apparent unwillingness of the new president and his appointees “to follow the ordinary norms of even-handedness when it comes to prosecution.”

Anticipating the possibility of preemptive pardons, some commentators worried that if Biden issued them, Democrats would be “joining the other side.” They said it would represent a “pull back from any commitment to democracy and the rule of law.”

In their view, preemptive pardons would signal that we are “headed down a dark road” toward becoming a “banana republic.”

Those concerns are misdirected.

If, and how far, this country goes down that dark road, it will be a result of things the Trump administration does. It will not be because Biden took their threats seriously.

Note that the professor presumes that Fauci and the other recipients are above suspicion, but are they really? What if Trump and his lawyers have probable cause to suspect them of having committed crimes and subverted the U.S. Constitution with their various actions?

The professor also seems to presume that Trump will possess dictatorial power, completely unrestrained by the judiciary and due process. Why?

Should the actions of Fauci and others really be shielded from investigation by law enforcement and examination by federal courts?

It seems to me that legal scholars who favor Biden’s preemptive pardons are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, which is well-known for disabling critical reasoning, judgement, and a sense of perspective.

I have long suspected that Anthony Fauci is, by virtue of powerful friends—including Bill Gates and Deep State denizens of the HHS, DoD, CIA—untouchable. President Biden’s “preemptive pardon” confirms my suspicion.

Fauci’s “favorite book of philosophy”” is the “The Godfather,” by Mario Puzo.