Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies in front of a congressional committee on June 3, 2024.
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In an extraordinary move hours before leaving office on Monday, President Biden said he was issuing pardons to retired Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the members of Congress and staff who served on the Jan. 6 committee and the U.S. Capitol and Washington, D.C., police officers who testified before that committee.
Biden said the preemptive pardons were needed because of threats of “unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions” by the incoming administration.
“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,” Biden said in a statement issued hours before President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office.
Biden said “exceptional circumstances” had prompted the pardons. “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,” he said.
It is not clear that the incoming Trump administration intends to prosecute the individuals. Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, said last week during her confirmation hearing that there wouldn’t be political prosecutions on her watch. But Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, has called for many of Trump’s opponents to be investigated or prosecuted.
Fauci was a leading figure leading the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic. An infectious disease specialist at the National Institutes of Health, he encouraged people to wear masks and social distance, but Trump allies accuse him of covering up the alleged real causes of COVID. Trump called Fauci a “disaster” and Fauci has been investigated by congressional Republicans.
Milley was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Trump’s first term and later called Trump “fascist to the core” in a book by journalist Bob Woodward. Trump has said he should be executed.
Biden said the members of the Jan. 6 committee — and law enforcement officials who testified before it — were doing their job to shed light on the insurrection attempted by a mob of Trump supporters in 2021.
“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,” Biden said.
