White House Might Pardon Fauci, Schiff, Cheney, and More

Politico columnist Jonathan Martin reports that “top Biden aides are conducting a vigorous internal debate over whether to issue preemptive pardons, an extraordinary step to inoculate potential Trump targets from prosecution.”

Martin writes, “At issue: whether to err on the side of protecting figures like Fauci, Schiff, and Cheney in case Trump pursues them – as Biden did with his son – or avoid any suggestion of impropriety by handing out pardons such individuals are not seeking.”

According to Martin, the deliberations touch on pardoning those currently in office, elected and appointed, and former officials who’ve angered Trump and his loyalists.

They are very afraid of Kash Patel and think he’s going after innocent people out of revenge.

According to the report, they haven’t even brought Biden into the discussions. Why bother? Right now, he’s in Angola and doesn’t even know what city he is in.

White House counsel Ed Siskel, other aides, and chief of staff Jeff Zients are discussing it.

Martin said, along with the 11-year pardon of Hunter, it shows the growing anxiety over Trump’s alleged reprisals.

Martin added, “The White House is facing contradictory pressures from Capitol Hill. Some longtime Democratic lawmakers, like Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), have talked favorably about the precedent of former President Gerald Ford’s preemptive pardon of Richard Nixon, issued before any charges were filed against the disgraced former president.

“If it’s clear by January 19 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,” Markey said on WGBH last week.

We had four years of Donald Trump, and he never exacted revenge. He does want people who have committed crimes to answer for them.