Politico reports that the Biden White House is considering “preemptive pardons” for people who may get caught up in “Trump’s crosshairs.” These people would include “members of Congress’ Jan. 6 Committee… Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming” as well as “Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who became a lightning rod for criticism from the right during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Why would they need pardons? If they are falsely accused by the Justice Department, shouldn’t they have to defend themselves like any other citizen?
Fauci manipulated research to throw the American public off of the lab leak. That is no longer a conspiracy. He also funded gain of function research and put in place non-scientific pandemic measures.
Adam Schiff punished Twitter, now X, for failing to find proof that Russian bots were perpetuating “misinformation” and asked Twitter to ban investigative journalists.
Liz Cheney selectively excluded exculpatory evidence in her January 6 investigative committees.
All of these people are heinous but are they criminals? It should be up to the courts to decide if these things are crimes against the American people, if they ever do get prosecuted. A preemptive pardon would feel like a miscarriage of any possibility of justice.
It is also interesting that pardons are now considered preemptive. Pardons are typically issued after the accused has served their time.