Pardons
Trump ended his first term by pardoning war criminals.
Biden ended his only term by pardoning a decorated military General.
After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our Nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights. I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety.
Trump pardoned people who lied to cover up his Russian exposure.
Biden pardoned a guy who tried to tell the truth to save millions of lives, while working for Trump.
Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me. The fact is, however, that the mere articulation of these baseless threats, and the potential that they will be acted upon, create immeasurable and intolerable distress for me and my family. For these reasons, I acknowledge and appreciate the action that President Biden has taken today on my behalf.
Update: I should have linked the post I did in December, explaining how preemptive pardons aren’t going to work (though I said then, and reiterate now, I think Milley is a special case).
I was dismayed to see this, for the reasons you have laid out in this space previously.
Leonard Peltier will die in prison.
This. Peltier’s trial and conviction and now decades long imprisonment is yet one more stain on the integrity of a nation, a nation, we are told, that fashions itself as “great”, or on the cusp of “greatness again”. These stains have left trails of blood spilled in a calico pattern across the entire nation. Leonard Peltier is condemned now to die in prison through Biden’s inaction, and our collective inaction since at least 1977. Yet on Pine Ridge, home to the Catholic missionary, Father Joseph Gill, child molestor extraordinaire, today is just another day, like all the others since at least 1868, filled with the frigid cold of bitter, helpless despair.
The history of the U.S. government’s treatment of Native Americans is not evidence of Leonard Peltier’s innocence.
I don’t believe he is innocent. There are misrepresentations of the presented evidence that are used to create his martyrdom. I haven’t read the trial transcripts but the transcripts of the appeal are clear.
Biden just granted him clemency.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-leonard-peltier-clemency_n_67608b04e4b0d06419ec6367?ds
No, he won’t. Biden just commuted his sentence to home confinement.
Great news!
That didn’t take long — the whitehouse.gov page you linked to is already 404.
That an institutionalist like Biden would feel the need to do this speaks volumes of where we are now at. It is now time to begin. If we make it through the next four years intact, maybe it’s time to rethink this whole pardon thing.
No. We need to rethink allowing felons to become president.
Rethinking the whole pardon thing = constitutional amendment. We can’t even ensure all Americans have the same rights based on the last attempted amendment and you want to aim for changing pardons? *eye roll*
What’s to stop Trump from preemptively pardoning all his cronies later this afternoon? Probably only his ADHD. Preemptive pardons should not be allowed. I get why Biden did it but it still doesn’t sit right.
Nothing.
Reread what Marcy and Rayne have written. Modifying the pardon power requires a constitutional amendment. The political system is broken and the country hasn’t been this divided since the Civil War. Tailored narrow amendments would not survive Congress. An open convention would be a ticket to hell.
Agree.
FOTUS, Felon of the United States in the White House and two civil claims – sexual assault and defamation.
Look at what we are teaching our children. UGH!
This should be a project encompassing legislatures in all blue states: a uniform state law which spells out disqualification for candidacy based on convictions for state or federal charges.
I think people deserve 2nd chances and I also think that if you are a citizen affected by the system you should have the right to peacefully have a say in it via voting. I don’t think that “rights” are something that can be forfeit. Than they’re not “rights”; they’re privileges. I also think felons should be able to run for office and they should be allowed to vote even if they’re incarcerated. I believe with enough truthful information people will make the right choices. If they don’t they’re gonna have to learn the hard way (eg. the next 4 years).
It’s the lying for fun and profit.
I also think that if people make money via lying they should be charged with fraud; and when convicted they should be forbidden from making $$ in that fashion for a period of 10 years. The “news” is the most dangerous unregulated product with no safety warnings that commits more damage than perhaps any other industry. This includes the gun industry because of the lying about it that allows them to continue to dispense death machines. This sounds perhaps totalitarian. But a dangerous product is still a dangerous product, and I know of no other way to address it.
Free speech is still free while lying on an industrial scale for profit should not be.
I’ve thought a pardon for innocent people would be a bad thing for the same reasons you’ve outlined. I think I might have changed my mind.
Trump’s targets, no matter the guilt or innocence will get flamed by the Ring Wing press and social media. Biden’s ability to wave a magic wand over them so it’s less painless and less frightening and less destructive is actually a good thing. Trump’s coming into office with an enemies list. These are not normal times. It’s a tough call.
It’s not at all a close call. Norms are gone, the talk of fascism during the election wasn’t hyperbole, and who actually gives a shit what whiny Republicans say about the pardons. Its here, it looks like it’s going to be worse than expected, and to care about Biden getting “flamed” will be forgotten with the first J6er pardoned and the first American to seek and receive political asylum makes no sense anymore. Get prepared to battle with metaphorical shivs and then we’ll come back to Queensbury rules someday. Just not today
I think the effort to modify pardons would be better spent driving a thousand shivs into the blob of shite that is Citizens United.
Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn is also grateful for his pardon:
https://bsky.app/profile/brandibuchman.bsky.social/post/3lg6gzpsbis2q
January 20, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Agree these preemptive pardons are discouraging and seem unhelpful, as laid out in other emptywheel posts.
Recipients however do sound grateful.
Wondering if these pardons are truly effective against the harassment, intimidation, conspiracy theory driven wackiness, etc. Is there a pardon that prevents vigilante “check ups” on imaginary pizza parlor basement child trafficking rings? I doubt it.
Or am I totally off base and preventing frivolous prosecution alone is the urgent goal?
Pardons can act like checkpoint inhibitors (e.g. PD-L1) granting future immunity from spurious legal targeting. Or they can cloak tumor cells and allow invasion and metastasis. The former for a true patriot…the latter for a ratfucker.
DUNN [from the screenshot]:
The person who is left vulnerable is Michael Cohen.
We’ve already seen what Trump did to him and now he’s left vulnerable for a second time for having put Trump on a platter to Congress and the justice system.
Good point. Except that I would call Cohen “the” person, but rather “one person”–because Trump’s list is long.
Michael Cohen pled guilty and served time for his federal offenses. If you are referring to trump’s conviction in the New York case (“hush money” and/or election interference), then that case would be under New York state law. IANAL, but I don’t see how Pam Bondi’s DOJ could now charge Cohen with any federal crime. I am more worried about Cassidy Hutchinson, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sarah Matthews who have spoken against trump. They are all young and lack the financial and/or legal resources to defend themselves against a despot out for revenge.
I think Cohen probably has a bootie load of receipts on Trump we’ve never even imagined him having.
To me it is time to take Trump seriously. Deadly seriously. I am worried about what this means for 4 years from now. But, I am much more concerned about today.
“I will Make Americans Wealthy Again!”
https://finance.yahoo.com/m/4401a006-a041-3a2c-afbd-4dabb50a693f/donald-trump-launches-trump.html
The $TRUMP coin skyrocketed to just above $75 early Sunday but is currently near $51 amid big price swings. The market cap is now $10.1 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.com. But the fully diluted valuation is roughly $50.6 billion.
The $TRUMP website says 80% of the meme coin is held by Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital, and a CIC co-owned entity called Fight Fight Fight.
Separately, the president-elect’s wife, Melania Trump, launched her own $MELANIA meme coin on Sunday afternoon. Though off Sunday’s peak exceeding $13, it’s near $8 with an $7.9 billion valuation.
Also, DJT Trump Media market cap is $8.6 billion with 53% held by insiders.
There. Don’t you feel wealthier already?
/s
Smelania?
“Smelania yet?”
—-
“I got Strumpfucked!
She probably thinks blockchain is jewelry.
Once you’ve got the Trump Smelania, it’s pretty hard to get it off’a ya.
If’s time to take Trump seriously? You must be new here.
Is there a link to Biden’s full statement, as well as to the actual pardon document? I’ve been reading media accounts that talk about Biden pardoning Milley, Fauci, and the J6 committee and staffers, but then it also talks about Michael Fanone being happy that he received one of these protective pardons. And of course they never link to the source documents.
I’m trying to see if this protective pardon also included those like Cassidy Hutchinson who gave testimony to the J6 committee.
Found the WH statement from Biden about the pardons.
Curiously, this did not show up by searching for “pardon” on the WH site. Instead, I had to dig into the statements from the Briefing Room section of site. Very odd.
“That is why I am exercising my authority under the Constitution to pardon General Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Members of Congress and staff who served on the Select Committee, and the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2025/01/20/statement-from-president-joe-biden-15/
404 error on the white house site??
When a new administration takes office, a new White House page is designed and takes its place. The new site is now up, but the links to the old one no longer work. Typically, there is a link provided for at least a while to the archived site of the prior administration.
And as you might imagine, this did *not* happen with the new site that has rolled out.
It does not.
Here’s the final paragraph of Biden’s statement on the pardons:
I wonder what other public servants who testified before the J6 committee who are not DC or Capitol Police officers think of this. I’m thinking specifically about Cassidy Hutchinson and other low-to-midlevel staffers like her who came forward to testify.
I’ve been wondering the same. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time trying to locate information on this, to no avail.
One of the disadvantages of preemptive pardons is that the legal process of appeals that could potentially reach the SCOTUS, if they decided to ultimately accept such a case or cases, is truncated enough to make it a bit easier for this rendition of SCOTUS to avoid accepting said case or cases.
For the sake of the country, I would have preferred to see Trump actually attempt to prosecute Milley or Fauci and let the legal process play out, potentially putting a Milley or Fauci appeal decision in the hands of the SCOTUS.
Trump, however, believes a president has the authority to issue preemptive pardons; consequently, I don’t expect him to legally contest these pardons.
Sometime in the future, a president who doesn’t believe in preemptive pardons will try to get a SCOTUS to rule against such pardons.
Trump is a notorious bluffer. He bluffs by talking SMACK and bullying people, hoping the individuals he targets will give up before the legal, financial or political battle or battles begin.
Another strategic advantage of letting the charges fly and going to court: Trump would have his shoe in the same boot as when he was on trial in Manhattan all that time: the facts would be on parade and, though he wouldn’t be the defendant (per se) at the time, his perfidy and treacherousness would be very question that is called.
Biden was operating in grievance mode, and many of these pardons are a product of that, rather than of clear historical perspective and political perspicacity. Good for the Peltier commute, though, and I don’t begrudge those who couldn’t bear the weight of being falsely prosecuted, despite the mountains of exculpatory evidence.
I will chip in for funding any of these people who, like the GOP staff who testified, are either not afforded pardons for retributive prosecution (note, that type is spelled with a “per” prefix) or who, like Cheney possibly, will refuse the pardons and have that refusal acknowledged in court. I’m pretty sure the legal fee gofundme effort for this kind of persecution defense will be off the charts == and there will be another advantage in these cases:
There will be no delay and stalling tactics from the persecutees, unlike Felonious Skunk’s go to M.O.; that stark difference alone should be all over the airwaves and slinky cables.
As it went down, though, Biden’s behavior is going to be used by Trump, and Dems will be swallowing hard.
I am saddened. Does anyone think these so-called “pre-exemptive pardons” will stop Trump from persecuting the people pardoned? He’s a criminal. Criminals have no respect for the law. His minions will conjure up new federal crimes these people supposedly committed, have corrupt state AGs like Ken Paxton charge them with conjured state crimes, or do like Nazis did and simply take them into “protective custody” (screw habeas corpus).
And all these pardons will do is help FauxNews substantiate false narratives of criminality.
My advice is these people should go into voluntary exile in countries that won’t honor extradition treaties they might have with the U.S. for clearly political prosecutions and that they should already be across the border by noon Eastern today.
God save us all.
I look at it this way: You can wear a bulletproof vest and still get shot in the head. But you still wear the vest. Some protection is better than none.
Agree fully. When you’ve been identified as a target for revenge, you take any protection no matter how imperfect it is.
When you’re in a rowboat at sea in a storm, row, bail, or navigate. Whiners swim.
Chip Roy is already gearing up to continue the harassment. From Politico, with emphasis in the original:
There should be crowdfunding for expenses related to these unwarranted attacks on these pardoned individuals. Ridiculous that they should have to pay a cent for anything related to this sustained persecution.
I seem to recall congresscritters asking TFG for pardons after 1/6. Is Chip Roy going to condemn them?
More pardons and commutations just announced. From the WH Briefing Room:
More background at the link.
I understand why most sane people are boycotting this inauguration. I probably should have, but I always want to have all the evidence I can possess.
Maybe it’s just me. But this sounds 1.) like the usual parade of campaign-speech lies in the first part; and, 2.) the declaration of a full-on tyrant, one who may not have written the words he speaks (they are a condensed version of Project 2025) but whose deteriorating mind nevertheless fully intends them.
“There are only two genders”–Barron and Ivanka.
The only thing Trump really promises is tyranny.
“I was saved by God to make America great again.”
Great stuff, we get a convict for a president plus a personal savior.
Although once again, he neglected to place his left hand on the Bible upon which he is supposedly swearing so maybe not so much on the savior part.
Bible (or other holy book) isn’t a legally-required part of any swearing-in.
I was sure he was going to insist on swearing-in on the Trump Bible, the one he’s been selling for a while, so at least that didn’t happen.
I will go out of my way to avoid watching him. For my mental health I must limit my exposure. Just the sound of his voice upsets me. I shoveled snow instead. At least I have something to show for it.
On Mary Trump’s YT video show, when she has to show clips of her lying uncle, she has taken to altering the audio so that it sounds like he’s inhaled a helium balloon, so as to lessen the triggering effect of his normal voice. Shoveling snow sounds like a better alternative.
There ain’t a big enough driveway to provide a four year alternative.
How long will it take for Trump to deputize the Proud Boys and others and give them marching orders along the lines of Goering’s, when they shoot it is me shooting.? If not Trump, someone close to him surely knows each step that must be taken to reprise the overthrow of the Weimar Republic.
As long as it takes to pardon the most violent PB and OK and “independent” thugs from their current incarceration…
The Proud Boys, in full ‘uniform’, paraded through DC as Trump was being sworn in.
Preview of Upcoming Events, apparently.
Why did he pardon the J6 committee but not their witnesses, like Cassidy Hutchinson?
Because the GOP has explicitly said they’re going after the committee members.
Biden also did not pardon Alex Vindeman, whom Musk has accused of (fwiw) treason.
Here’s Officer Mike Fanone’s response to his pardon on BlueSky:
https://bsky.app/profile/ryanjreilly.com/post/3lg6su6olfk2k
Although I fully understand why Biden did this and I know the intention behind his actions were good. However, this may spell the beginning of the end of the presidential pardons. Trump is going to run to SCOTUS to challenge these preemptive pardons and probably prevail. While it is hard to reckon how SCOTUS will strike them down, it is now very clear that pardons are going to be used on a tit-for-tat basis by outgoing political parties and the overall efficacy of a presidential pardon will have been diminished by several degrees of magnitude.
MAGAts were calling for trials yesterday over at Fox “News” comments of General Miley, Dr. Fauci, and the J6 Committee. Ol’ Joe did the right thing in THIS instance, in my opinion. Looks like Kash’s Enemy List has dwindled significantly. Oh well.
What a sh_t show we have in America now that a convicted felon is charged with upholding the Constitution – who by-the-way DID NOT place his hand on the Bible. (pro’lly out of fear of being struck down right then and there by the Big G Himself).
Is Milley still alive?
By Reuters
January 20, 2025 2:49 PM EST Updated 42 min ago
WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) – The Pentagon on Monday removed the portrait of Mark Milley, the retired Army general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to two Reuters witnesses, in a move that happened within two hours of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Yes – he’s just being insulted by Donnie and his peeps, like everyone else who didn’t support TFG in all his criming.