WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden told USA TODAY that he has not decided whether to issue preemptive pardons to people like former Rep. Liz Cheney and disease expert Anthony Fauci to shield them from potential investigations by President-elect Donald Trump.
However, Biden stated that when he met with Trump in the Oval Office on November 13, he urged him not to target individuals.
“I tried to make it clear that there was no need and it was counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores,” Biden told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview Sunday.
How did Trump respond? “No, he didn’t. But he did not say, ‘No, I am going to…’.” Biden said. “He did not reinforce it. “He basically listened.”
Biden is considering pardons in light of Trump’s repeated threats to investigate those who investigated him or who he believes thwarted his priorities during his first administration.
Trump, who was twice indicted on federal charges that were later dropped after winning the election, has threatened to imprison Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Trump could not simply imprison his targets, but his nominees to lead the Justice Department and the FBI have discussed investigating his political opponents, which carries the risk of indictment and prosecution.
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee for U.S. Attorney General, has stated that “the Department of Justice, the prosecutors, will be prosecuted — the bad ones.” His nominee to lead the FBI, former intelligence official Kash Patel, has threatened to “find the conspirators not just in government, but in the media.”
Trump has told NBC News that everyone on the House committee investigating the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, including Cheney, R-Wyo., and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., should “go to jail.”
Trump referred to Schiff, who led the first impeachment of Trump as a House member and served on the Jan. 6 committee, as “the enemy within.”
Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was frequently targeted by Republican lawmakers over the United States’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump has claimed that he overruled Fauci while president.
Cheney has already chastised Trump for being subject to a possible federal investigation. She described the allegations as “a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth.”
“No reputable lawyer, legislator or judge would take this seriously,” Cheney informed the press.
Schiff has stated that blanket pardons for unspecified crimes would set a bad precedent.
Cheney and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the leaders of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the country’s second-highest civilian award, from Biden.
In an interview with USA TODAY, Biden stated that any decision on pardons before leaving office on January 20 would be based on Trump’s signals about his intentions.
“Well, a little bit of it depends on who he puts in what positions,” Biden told reporters.