President Joe Biden on Jan. 20 issued preemptive pardons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and people who served on the U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Biden is also issuing preemptive pardons to law enforcement officers who testified to the House panel.
“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics. But these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said in a statement, alleging that the individuals for whom he issued the pardons “do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.”
The pardons were granted to former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and other members of the House Select Committee on Jan. 6, which disbanded in early 2023. Pardons were also given to Michael Fanone, a retired Metropolitan Police Department officer following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach and other officers who testified before the House committee.
The Jan. 6 committee failed to archive certain files and deleted others, according to Republican lawmakers who reviewed the panel’s investigation.
The pardons also cover Milley, who served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2019 through 2023, and Fauci, who was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 until he retired in 2022.
Milley has admitted that he told a Chinese general during the first Trump administration that the United States was not going to attack China, while Fauci has been accused of lying under oath about his knowledge of research in China.
Trump has called for investigations into Cheney and others.
Biden’s first term ends later on Monday. The pardons were issued just hours before Trump was scheduled to be sworn into office.
Milley did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Inquiries to the employers of Fauci and Cheney were not immediately returned.
Biden had said recently that he was weighing whether to issue preemptive pardons, answering a question that identified Fauci and Cheney as possible recipients. Biden said at the time that during his meeting with Trump in late 2024, he “tried to make it clear that … it was counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores.”
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump transition team, told The Epoch Times in response to the remarks that Biden was abusing his executive power to protect those who “led the unconstitutional and failed witch hunts against President Trump.”
