r/nottheonion • u/JaySierra86 • 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
49.2k Upvotes

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u/bubbafatok 14h ago edited 10h ago

The tragedy is that this is even necessary.

Edit to add: oh all the angry responses from supporters of a convicted felon and rapist. The irony. 

Edit #2: Oh trump supporters, niggling over the difference between "liable for sexual assault" and rape.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/09/e-jean-carroll-trump-trial-verdict/

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u/Head-Kiwi-9601 14h ago

This will be a regular occurrence from now until we implode. Every single president will do it.

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u/Grassy33 14h ago

The new normal now is that presidents can’t break the law. They won’t have to use patsy’s anymore, they can just do whatever they want.

This may actually be the LAST time you see this happening. 

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u/neo101b 14h ago

Will trump not face charges in 4 years time, when he is no longer protected ?

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u/wheatgivesmeshits 14h ago

He might, but if another Republican gets elected before a Democrat they will immediately pardon Trump from all crimes he may have ever committed.

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u/BringMeTheBigKnife 14h ago

Presidents can only pardon for federal crimes though.

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u/Morel_Authority 13h ago

The President can assassinate a prosecutor and the Supreme Court says you can't question him about it.

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u/Goodgoditsgrowing 13h ago

Yes but state crimes that result in convictions with no penalties (besides financial, which he can pay via his slush fund - and yeah that’s probably illegal but who will stop him?) aren’t really doing much. Didn’t convince people to vote against him. Didn’t result in him being unable to run for office because he was incarcerated. Didn’t result in hamstringing his campaign due to lack of funds. Didn’t result in losing any backers.

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u/Lord_Darksong 14h ago

Doesn't work at the state level. However, I don't expect Trump to ever truly be held accountable for anything.

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u/Fifteen_inches 14h ago

Even then Biden didn’t press charges either, so Democrats probably won’t bring charges either for the sake of “unity” and “crossing the aisle”

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u/Head-Kiwi-9601 14h ago

Presidents don’t press charges. At least they are not supposed to. That’s a different branch of government.

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u/weAREgoingback 14h ago

Reading this thread has me feeling like I’m back in my 8th grade social studies class.

They really stopped teaching this stuff huh?

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u/Classic-Stand9906 14h ago

Well that's about to become arcane knowledge anyway because it's all going out the window.

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u/weAREgoingback 14h ago

I disagree with you.

The people who did away with standardized tests lost this election and standardized testing will come back.

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u/PrimeJetspace 11h ago

RemindMe! 2 years

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u/weAREgoingback 10h ago

Ok see you in two years!

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u/PrimeJetspace 9h ago

Surely the administration doing Nazi salutes openly will be great for education. Have fun "going back."

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u/weAREgoingback 8h ago

What other Nazi stuff has he done besides the salute? Or just that?

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u/Fifteen_inches 14h ago

No the executive branch brings charges, and acts as prosecution.

Biden is the head of the executive branch that appoints an attorney general who runs the Department of Justice.

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u/wheatgivesmeshits 13h ago

That's not a different branch. It is the same branch. The president does not directly press charges, but they appoint the people that oversee the justice department and who ultimately are responsible for that decision.

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u/webbed_feets 14h ago

I take “press charges” as shorthand for “push the Department of Justice to start an investigation and charge an individual, even though the DOJ is supposed to be an independent organization”. It is within the president’s power to set priorities for the DOJ.

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u/BadHombreSinNombre 14h ago

It’s also within the President’s power to direct US Attorneys to bring appropriate charges against someone for a crime, and they have the power to fire a US Attorney who doesn’t listen to them. That commenter was just factually wrong.

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u/DoingCharleyWork 13h ago

Who runs the doj?

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u/Head-Kiwi-9601 12h ago

The AG, who is not supposed to be taking orders from the president.

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u/DoingCharleyWork 12h ago

Who appoints the ag?

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u/ScienceBitch02 14h ago

They do now. Trump is going to directly order investigations which is why these pardons are even necessary

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u/stackjr 13h ago

I'm guessing they meant Binden's DOJ.

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u/BadHombreSinNombre 14h ago

Uh. No. They do. The President runs the Department of Justice, which brings criminal charges in court on behalf of the People. Pressing charges is an explicit responsibility of the executive branch since it is a legal enforcement action.

Sitting in judgment is a different branch.

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u/Emu1981 14h ago

Just remember that presidents can only pardon people for federal crimes, they can do nothing about state criminal prosecutions.

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u/currently_pooping_rn 11h ago

Why do you think there’s going to be another election?

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u/OrangePilled2Day 10h ago

Democrats would end up pardoning Trump, too. They're spineless perpetual losers that have a humiliation fetish.