A day that began with an outgoing president’s pardon of lawmakers and his own family ended with an incoming president's pardons of supporters who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol four years ago.
The clemency grants by Presidents Biden and Trump — one helping uncharged people not accused of wrongdoing, the other aiding rioters convicted of violent felonies — are vastly different in scope, impact and their meaning for the rule of law.
What the Associated Press calls the remarkable flex of executive authority in a 12-hour span also shows the men’s deeply rooted suspicion of one another, with both signaling to their supporters that the tall pillars of the criminal justice system — facts, evidence and law — could not be trusted as foundational principles in each other’s administrations."
“It was a sad day for Lady Justice no matter which side of the political spectrum you’re on,” said John Fishwick Jr., a former U.S. attorney in Virginia during the Obama administration. “In alternative ways, both Biden and Trump were sending the same message. Trump was saying it was a corrupt system the last four years, and Biden was saying it’s about to be a corrupt system. And that’s a horrible message.”
In pardoning his siblings and their spouses, Biden said his family had been “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics.” He said he had “no reason to believe these attacks will end,” a similar rationale he cited when pardoning his son Hunter for tax and gun crimes despite having pledged not to.
He also pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and House members who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, — all considered potential targets of investigation in a Trump administration despite no public evidence of any criminal behavior. Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, has singled out Fauci as someone deserving of investigation and prosecution over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two presidents' "wobbly faith in the criminal justice system" appears to mirror the American public’s perspective.
About half of Americans are “not very” or “not at all” confident that the Justice Department, the FBI or the Supreme Court will act in a fair and nonpartisan manner during Trump’s second term. In each instance, roughly 3 in 10 are “somewhat” confident and about 2 in 10 are “extremely” or “very” confident, according to an AP-NORC poll from January.
While the outgoing Democratic president was convinced his successor could not be trusted not to target his perceived adversaries, including his own relatives, the incoming Republican president seemed equally convinced the prior administration engaged in political persecution of his supporters.
For critics of the pardons like Fishwick, the former U.S. Attorney, the clemency risks adding to the misguided public perception that the criminal justice system is “rigged.”
“I think both Biden and Trump were using the pardon power as part of political statements,” Fishwick said, “and that’s not how the Founding Fathers envisioned them being implemented by the president.”
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