The prospect of such pardons had been the subject of heated debate for months at the highest levels of the White House.
Trump said after his inauguration that Biden had pardoned people who were “very very guilty of very bad crimes” — “political thugs,” Trump called them.
AP AUDIO: Biden pardons Fauci and Milley in an effort to guard against potential ‘revenge’ by Trump AP correspondent Ed Donahue reports on last-minute pardons in the Biden administration.
Biden, a Democrat, has used the power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who have not even been investigated.
His decision lays the groundwork for an even more expansive use of pardons by Trump, a Republican, and future presidents.
The “full and unconditional” pardons for Fauci and Milley cover the period extending back to Jan. 1, 2014.
Moments before leaving office, he pardoned his siblings and their spouses in a move designed to guard against potential retribution. »