In an unprecedented move during the final hours of his presidency on Monday, President Joe Biden granted pardons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of his own family.
The pardons also extended to the bipartisan U.S. House of Representatives select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, as well as the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the committee.
In one of his final statements before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, Biden, 82, said: “The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense. Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
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As part of a flurry of last-minute statements before leaving office, Biden pardoned his brothers, James and Francis Biden, his sister, Valerie Biden, and their spouses.
“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics,” Biden said in a statement. “Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”
Biden, who last month pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who faced sentencing for convictions on federal tax and gun charges, set the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued just days prior to Monday’s statement.
“These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” the outgoing president explained. “Even when individuals have done nothing wrong — and in fact have done the right thing — and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances.”
Perhaps the most controversial figure from the pandemic era, Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for nearly four decades and served as the federal government’s chief medical advisor during the pandemic, expressed gratitude for the pardon. He noted what he described as politically motivated threats against him.
“Despite the accomplishments that my colleagues and I achieved over my long career of public service, I have been the subject of politically-motivated threats of investigation and prosecution,” Fauci said in a statement. “There is absolutely no basis for these threats. Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime.”
In response to Fauci’s pardon, Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said the move “seals the deal” in regards to Fauci’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic. During a 2021 House hearing on the origins of the virus, Paul accused Fauci of falsely denying that the government has funded “gain-of-function” research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where the COVID-19 virus is believed to have originated.
On Monday, Paul wrote: “If there was ever any doubt as to who bears responsibility for the COVID pandemic, Biden’s pardon of Fauci forever seals the deal. As Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee I will not rest until the entire truth of the coverup is exposed. Fauci’s pardon will only serve as an accelerant to pierce the veil of deception. Ignominious!”
“Anthony Fauci,” he added, “will go down in history as the first government scientist to be preemptively pardoned for a crime.”
General Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Trump administration, has been critical in outspoken remarks about Trump’s conduct surrounding the Jan. 6 riot. He also faced allegations of treason from lawmakers on the political right after he said in 2021 that his intention was not to “usurp authority” when he told Chinese officials he would warn them if the U.S. decided to attack.
“My family and I are deeply grateful for the President’s action today,” Milley said in a statement to USA Today. “After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our Nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who served on the House Jan. 6 committee and was among those eligible for Biden’s pardon, previously criticized preemptive pardons, particularly under the first Trump administration.
Schiff, along with former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.; Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.; and others served on the bipartisan Jan. 6 House Select Committee.
“The precedent of giving blanket pardons, preemptive blanket pardons on the way out of an administration, I think is a precedent we don’t want to set,” Schiff said on ABC’s “This Week” in December.
Earlier Monday, hours before his inauguration, Trump told NBC News the pardons were “disgraceful” and that “many are guilty of major crimes.”
Upon taking office at noon Monday, Trump has pledged to grant swift clemency to many of those involved in the Capitol riot.
