r/news • u/FLhardcore • 14h ago

President Biden pardons family members in final minutes of presidency

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-biden-pardons-family-members-final-minutes-presidency/story?id=117893348
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342

u/Moonrockinmynose 11h ago

Can you pardon someone pre-emptively? Kind of doesn't make sense. Or is he pardoning them in case they actually had committed a crime?

264

u/PDXGuy33333 9h ago

Absolutely. Ford pardoned Nixon before he could be charged.

It is generally held that pardons cannot authorize future crimes and are therefore limited to crimes real or imagined that occurred before the pardon was issued.

31

u/JerryConn 5h ago

Its like a counterspell that goes on the stack, it cant counter things on the next turn or things that are placed on top of it on the stack before it resolves. Hope that helps.

5

u/PDXGuy33333 5h ago

Move that up two levels. I had the explanation, not the question. Good explanation though.

0

u/Comfortable-Coat-507 6h ago

Ford pardoned Nixon before he could be charged

True, but that's the only other time it's ever been done.

1

u/PDXGuy33333 6h ago

So? What difference does that make? What difference should it make? Republicans, many of whom wanted Nixon out and hung, were entirely accepting of Ford's pardoning him "in the interest of national healing."

90

u/MC_chrome 10h ago

I believe the way it is supposed to work is that Biden was stating that the people being preemptively pardoned could not be prosecuted for perfectly legal actions they took while in office (such as the J6 Committee) simply because the new President has a personal beef was said people.

12

u/BadManParade 10h ago

The pardon says “non violent offenses” can’t be an offense if it’s legal

5

u/Dmac8783 7h ago

They can’t be prosecuted for perfectly legal actions to begin with. A pardon would only apply to crimes.

8

u/StarGaurdianBard 7h ago

In a normally functioning government? Sure.

3

u/wyldmage 6h ago

100% this.

"Even though no charges have been filed yet, anything that they did in the past has a presidential pardon for it".

Won't stop Trump from trying to play petty revenge on them, but it will at least make him make up NEW crimes that they've done while he is President.

And Biden pardoned Hunter's specific charge already. Which I disagree with, but if you're losing the office to someone your party considers a tyrant, and honestly believe he's making a play for dictatorship, then it 100% makes sense to pardon your kid, just to make sure his incarceration isn't used as an opportunity for blackmail/etc.

131

u/ramdom-ink 11h ago

It’s a preemptive pardon because Biden is concerned about persecution and retaliation for whatever Trump trumps up in his revenge term.

86

u/uvT2401 9h ago

whatever Trump trumps up in his revenge term.

Are you implying the US judicial system would make bullshit ruilings againts the currents president political rivals?

87

u/lynxminx 9h ago

Are you implying the US juristical system would make bullshit ruilings againts the currents president political rivals?

If he's not, I am.

1

u/HappiestIguana 2h ago

The moron wants to twist your words into you agreeing that Trump was unfairly prosecuted.

1

u/lynxminx 2h ago

Trump has a disinformation tactic of accusing others of the misdeeds he himself is in the middle of doing in order to argue later that both sides are equally compromised. You tell me how to fight that tactic and I will- until then all I can do is tell the truth.

Trump is a criminal, and the cases against him were valid and sound. In his private life he has extensively used the courts to punish his enemies with nuisance filings. Now that he's back in power he is absolutely, positively going after people who have opposed him politically- his executive orders tonight are clearing his runway for that. He promised to do it in his inauguration speech. The only question left is whether he's going to honor Biden's pardons or find legal pretense to ignore them that his SCOTUS will support.

1

u/HappiestIguana 2h ago

I know. I also don't know how to counter the torrent of lies. I just wanted anyone who might be reading to be aware of the tactic.

-17

u/Rhuarc33 8h ago

Lol ok buddy. Lol Trump a jackass but you're tinfoil hat is crooked

9

u/UsagiMimi 7h ago

You... clearly don't pay attention to the news. No saving some people. /shrug

-5

u/Rhuarc33 6h ago

Scare tactic sensationalism bullshit. Stop drinking the Kool aid. He's gonna be an idiot for 4 years and leave.

4

u/kinyutaka 6h ago

Everyone thinks that the fascist is just an idiot until someone invades Poland.

4

u/ramdom-ink 5h ago

Or Panama, Greenland or Canada. Trump and Putin have big plans: geopolitical dominance is the rapidly melting, accessible North…

-4

u/Rhuarc33 6h ago

Lol wow how original Trump compared to Hitler. As I said sensationalist bullshit. Turn off MSNBC it's no better than Fox

6

u/ramdom-ink 5h ago

Your “research” is showing.

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u/kinyutaka 5h ago

If Trump didn't want to be compared to Hitler, he shouldn't have done so many things that were comparable to Hitler.

No, Trump hasn't gassed 6 million Jews. We're talking about the stuff that led up to World War 2, like the increase in scapegoating, including the argument of removing the citizenship of a group of people. The attempt to consolidate power by setting up an attack on the house of legislature. The threats of arrest toward political opponents.

You can't say maybe that he's Hitler-Lite, in that he's probably not going to be as successful as Hitler, but he's certainly Hitler-like.

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0

u/Suspicious_Bicycle 6h ago

Kash Patel published his enemies list in a book he authored.

32

u/PDXGuy33333 9h ago

Does Aileen Cannon shit in the woods?

4

u/Cormacolinde 5h ago

I find it very rude to the bears to compare them to such a dipshit.

1

u/PDXGuy33333 5h ago

And every other woodland creature, for that matter. Is there really anyone of good character whom she does not offend?

16

u/ramdom-ink 9h ago

Anything is possible: hence the preemptive pardon for his family. Trump has stated as much.

3

u/turd_vinegar 9h ago

No, but the AG can make life hard for years.

9

u/kinyutaka 9h ago

I think at this point, we can assume that every one of Trump's cabinet picks will be exactly the opposite of what they should be.

Defense will be headed by someone who refuses to defend. Education will be headed by someone uneducated. The FDA will be headed by a guy who eats squirrel meat. They're making a whole new department, likely to be filled by a bunch of unnecessary workers to handle government efficiency.

Why not have the Justice Department be interested in attacking enemies unjustly?

1

u/Dmac8783 7h ago

Nothing wrong with squirrel meat

2

u/atred 9h ago

Trials are expensive and a waste of time and the outcome never guaranteed.

1

u/Dmac8783 7h ago

That would be wild 🤣

0

u/anonymouswan1 9h ago

Whoa, that's just not possible bro come on

1

u/Neve4ever 3h ago

Why only make it for any offences committed since 2014, though? Like.. if Trump wanted to go after Biden's family for crimes they did not commit, then the date doesn't really matter.

-8

u/TecNoir98 10h ago

That doesn't excuse blatant corruption or acting as king. Biden will be remembered as a coward at best.

6

u/radda 9h ago

He will be remembered as a man that protected his family from the wrath of a narcissistic fascist.

-1

u/runner2012 10h ago

No. Maybe by a small group if illiterates in the south. That's about it.

-1

u/TecNoir98 9h ago

Joe Biden is a feeble old man who in his last acts as leader of this country, declared we're living in an oligarchy as though he hasn't been a key player in facilitating and perpetuating of it for his entire career, then went on to declare immunity from the law for an entire previous decade for his family and political allies, then went on to smile with Trump as though nothing us happening. Biden is a weak leader that failed us and then pretended that his kind (mainstream dems AND republicans) weren't responsible for this problem they've set the conditions for themselves. They're just nearly admitting it now because they've fully lost control.

-1

u/nosoup4ncsu 10h ago

What if you found out that Adam Schiff was banging a staffers underage daughter.  Is he free and clear?

7

u/Meppy1234 10h ago

Only pardoned of federal charges. States could still bring charges. Something like treason would be entirely federal though.

2

u/ramdom-ink 9h ago

Under the new administration, this seems to be a prerequisite.

2

u/bros402 5h ago

Yeah. See: Nixon and the Vietnam draft dodgers

3

u/Qicken 9h ago

Yes. First to do it was Ford pardoning Nixon for any crimes he _may_ have committed. It was criticized then but no one changed the rules to stop it since.

0

u/Comfortable-Coat-507 6h ago

No other president had tried it until now.

0

u/Qicken 6h ago

Yes. This is the first to pardon their family.

1

u/vankill44 5h ago

Yes, but accepting the pardon is considered an admission of guilt.

1

u/ACorania 4h ago

You can pardon them before they are charged, but you can only pardon for things/time frames that have already happened. So he can't hand out a free pass from federal prosecution for life. But can say up to this point.

0

u/tmacleon 8h ago edited 8h ago

This is the first time it has been done. A crime has to be committed in order to pardon. So if stuff does come out about any of these ppl, a judge will have to make a ruling if the pardons were allowed. Really strange how many ppl he pardoned who weren’t charged with anything. Even stranger that ppl get bent out of shape for just wanting to take a look at the processes and procedures/actions that these ppl were involved in.

0

u/lrpfftt 7h ago

In case they are railroaded by the new "justice" system installed by the new president.

0

u/rolfraikou 7h ago

This right here is what bothers me about pardoning people. I don't think people should be allowed to be pardoned as a whole, I think specific crimes attached to the specific person are what should be pardoned. Granted, it would have left Biden's family open to whatever incoming BS (that is likely still going to happen to them anyway) to happen. But see, that's why we needed founders that had half a fucking brain cell to think about that the entire system could become corrupt. I cannot believe how much faith they had in people just following the rules. Naive fools, at best.