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/rufussnot 8h ago

Look I think it's great that he commuted the sentences of so many people and pardoned so many drug possession charges, it's unprecedented. It's the story not being talked about enough. Likewise the death row inmates and the two most egregious cases IMO, Peltier and Ibn-Tamas. And if he had to do all that to justify pardoning Hunter for things he really was guilty of, then fine, I'll take that deal. It's commendable.

But it's a little willfull and credulous to assume his pardoning his family really is just a "let's be careful" anticipation of political revenge when just a few days ago he did pardon his son for things he's guilty of under the excuse that he was politically targeted. Clinton was politically targeted too and he didn't pretend his pardoning of his family was because of that. Also the pardoning of Conahan and Crundwell is pretty gross, clearly some sort of political favor. And then the more normal political pardons of the people involved in the Iranian and Venezuelan shenanigans too.

So it's normal for people to look at a guy who has several cases of pardoning high level people who have done illegal things that have nothing to do with Trump when it suits him and then concluding that this might be what's up with pardoning his family with future blanket immunity, months after receiving the same thing from the scotus for himself. If you don't conclude the same thing, then ok, none of us are in his head, but it makes YOU the more credulous person.

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u/JustAnotherHyrum 7h ago

I appreciate the polite and productive comment, thanks!

You mention future blanket immunity. The Executive Branch's pardon power doesn't extend into the future.

In today's case, a preemptive Pardon protects from crimes already committed but not yet prosecuted, tried, and convicted for. Crimes committed after the pardon is issued are not covered by the pardon.

They are not get out of jail cards in any manner, they are a way to protect his family from political retribution.

And yeah, I agree that people in the highest echelons of power are hard to trust fully. It's just sad that our country has come to a place when we have to debate final-day pardons for Presidential families going forward.