President Joe Biden is expected to make further use of his clemency power before leaving office next week, potentially extending pre-emptive pardons to individuals who could be targeted for retribution by President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, according to a senior White House official and a person familiar with the discussions.
Biden has not made a final decision on any pardons for people in that group, the White House official said on Friday.
The timing for the clemency actions, should Biden decide to grant them, is likely to be during his final hours in office — on Sunday or before noon on Monday, the two sources said, though timing is subject to change.
On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to prosecute his political opponents during a second term.
NBC News previously reported that Biden was considering pre-emptive pardons for potential targets of that retribution, including Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a manager during Trump’s first impeachment; Dr. Anthony Fauci, a former top infectious diseases expert who locked horns with Trump over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic; and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who served as vice chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and campaigned with Vice President Kamala Harris against Trump last year.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the former chairman of the House Jan. 6 committee, said this week that he would accept a pardon, telling CBS News that if “that is something that’s offered to me, I will accept it.”
A spokesperson for Thompson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
In a statement Friday announcing his biggest single-day act of clemency, Biden indicated that he could take more clemency action before he leaves office Monday.
“I am proud of my record on clemency and will continue to review additional commutations and pardons,” he said.
Biden has issued more individual pardons and commutations than any of his predecessors. In December, he pardoned his son Hunter Biden the same month he was scheduled to be sentenced on federal gun and tax charges, saying that “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”
Several U.S. presidents in recent decades have issued pre-emptive pardons, including George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter.
