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Biden pardons Congressman Thompson, House Jan. 6th Committee, more on his way out

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune.

Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., center, speaks as the House select committee investigating Jan. 6, on Capitol Hill, Thursday, June 9, 2022, in Washington. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., left, and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., listen. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

  • Dr. Anthony Fauci and retired General Mark Milley were also among President Biden’s last-minute pardons issued hours before President Trump was to be sworn in.

With President-elect Donald Trump (R) set to take the oath of office at noon, outgoing President Joe Biden (D) issued a flurry of last-minute pardons Monday morning to people he says do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.

Among the pardons are Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley, and the members of the U.S. House Committee appointed by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) that investigated the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The pardons come after Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker last month that Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson (D) and former Wyoming Congresswomen Liz Cheney (R) “should go to jail” for their role on the House Select Committee.

READ MORE: Trump says Thompson, others on House Select Committee “should go to jail”

“For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump said, adding, “Biden can give them a pardon if he wants to. And maybe he should. Just remember, unselect committee. A year and a half of sworn testimony, and after getting all of the testimony, they deleted it, wait, and they destroyed almost everything. There’s nothing left. It’s unprecedented.”

Welker asked the President-elect if he would direct the new FBI director and Attorney General to send them jail. Trump said, “No.”

“No, not at all. I think that they’ll have to look at that, but I’m not going to — I’m going to focus on drill, baby, drill,” Trump said.

In his Monday morning pardon announcement, President Biden “American democracy was tested” on January 6, 2021, “when a mob of insurrectionists attacked the Capitol in an attempt to overturn a fair and free election by force and violence.”

“In light of the significance of that day, Congress established the bipartisan Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol to investigate and report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes of the insurrection. The Select Committee fulfilled this mission with integrity and a commitment to discovering the truth,” Biden said. “Rather than accept accountability, those who perpetrated the January 6th attack have taken every opportunity to undermine and intimidate those who participated in the Select Committee in an attempt to rewrite history, erase the stain of January 6th for partisan gain, and seek revenge, including by threatening criminal prosecutions.”

Joe Biden Trump
In this combination photo, President Joe Biden speaks May 2, 2024, in Wilmington, N.C., left, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, May 1, 2024, in Waukesha, Wis. (AP Photo)

While note specifically mentioning the House Committee members by name, Biden said he was pardoning “the Members of Congress and staff who served on the Select Committee, and the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee.”

President Biden went on to note that, “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.”

As for his pardons of Milley and Fauci, Biden touted the retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s guidance of the Armed Forces “through complex global security threats” and said Fauci “saved countless lives by managing the government’s response to pressing health crises.” While not specifically naming COVID-19, Biden said Fauci “helped the country tackle a once-in-a-century pandemic,” and added, “The United States is safer and healthier because of him.”

Notably, as reported by the Associated Press, the pardons, announced with just hours left in Biden’s presidency, have been the subject of heated debate for months at the highest levels of the White House.

“It’s customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but those acts of mercy are usually offered to Americans who have been convicted of crimes,” the AP reported. “Biden, a Democrat, has used the power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who have not even been investigated. The decision lays the groundwork for an even more expansive use of pardons by Trump, a Republican, and future presidents.”

President Biden also recently awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second-highest civilian honor in the United States, to both Congressman Thompson and former Congresswoman Cheney.

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Read original article by clicking here.

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