12/06/2024

Biden Team Considers Blanket Pardons Before Trump’s Promised ‘Retribution’

Officials do not believe potential recipients have committed any crimes

President Joe Biden’s staff is debating whether he should issue blanket pardons for a swath of President-elect Donald Trump’s perceived enemies to protect them from the "retribution" he has threatened after he takes office, according to people familiar with the discussion.

The idea would be to pre-emptively extend executive clemency to a list of current and former government officials for any possible crimes over a period of years, effectively short-circuiting the next president’s promised campaign of reprisals.

White House officials do not believe the potential recipients have actually committed crimes, but they have grown increasingly worried that Trump’s selections for top Justice Department positions indicate that he will follow through on his repeated vows to seek revenge. Even an investigation that results in no charges could drag on for months or years, costing those people hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and crippling their career prospects.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The New York Times.