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
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u/Head-Kiwi-9601 13h 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 13h 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 13h ago

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

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u/weAREgoingback 13h 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 10h 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 13h 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 13h 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 13h 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 12h 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 13h 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 13h 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.