President Joe Biden has issued pre-emptive pardons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and the members of Congress who served on the House committee that investigated the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in one of his final acts before leaving the White House, anticipating their political persecution by his incoming successor Donald Trump.
In a statement, Biden characterized each of the recipients as “dedicated, selfless public servants” on whom the nation relies “every day” and called them “the lifeblood of our democracy.”
Milley, he said, “served our nation for more than 40 years, serving in multiple command and leadership posts and deploying to some of the most dangerous parts of the world to protect and defend democracy,” while he also lauded Fauci as someone who’d helped “countless lives by managing the government's response to pressing health crises, including HIV/AIDS, as well as the Ebola and Zika viruses” during his half-century in government service.
Biden further praised the House January 6 panel as having fulfilled the mission of reporting on “facts, circumstances, and causes” of the Capitol attack by a riotous mob of Trump’s supporters “integrity and a commitment to discovering the truth.”
At the same time, he lamented how those he was pardoning had been “subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties” by the president-elect and his allies, and noted that Trump and other prominent Republicans — including members of his incoming cabinet — have called for the recipients to be prosecuted for various actions they’ve taken while in government service and after.
“These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions,” Biden said.
He continued: “I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics. But these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.”
Biden also noted that “baseless and politically motivated investigations” can and do “wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families.”
“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, adding that he was using his authority to grant pardons to Milley, Fauci, the members and staff of the House January 6 Select Committee, as well as a group of police officers who gave evidence before the panel, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, and Washington, DC Metropolitan Police officer Daniel Hodges and former officer Michael Fanone.
“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. Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country,” Biden said.
Gonell, who was medically retired from the Capitol Police department as a result of injuries sustained during the attack, said in a statement sent to The Independent via text message that he “was just doing my job and fulfilling my oath to defend this country” when he was attacked on January 6, 2021.
“We protected all elected officials, regardless of their political party,” said Gonell, who also thanked Biden for “upholding our nation’s democracy, for your years of service to this country, and — in your final moments as Commander-in-Chief — issuing preemptive pardons for me and other loyal Americans,” he said. “I did not seek a pardon, and I did nothing wrong. My family and I are grateful for your empathy and your leadership.”
Dunn, who retired from the department in 2022 to mount an unsuccessful run for a House seat in Maryland, told CBS News he was “eternally grateful” to Biden, both for the pardon and “his leadership and service to this nation.”
“I wish this pardon weren’t necessary, but unfortunately, the political climate we are in now has made the need for one somewhat of a reality. I, like all other public servants, was just doing my job and upholding my oath. I will always honor that,” he said.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Hodges — who still serves as a member of the DC police force — wrote that he was unable to comment as he was on duty for inauguration day.
I'm on the clock and can't answer media inquiries now.
— Definitely Danny (@SemperWry) January 20, 2025
Thompson and Cheney, who lost her House seat to a Trump-backed primary challenger in 2022, said in a joint statement issued on behalf of the other committee members and staff that they wished to “express our gratitude” to Biden for “recognizing that we and our families have been continuously targeted not only with harassment, lies and threats of criminal violence, but also with specific threats of criminal prosecution and imprisonment by members of the incoming administration, simply for doing our jobs and upholding our oaths of office.”
“We have been pardoned today not for breaking the law but for upholding it,” they added.
Congressman Bennie G. Thompson and Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney Joint Statement on Behalf of the Members of the Bipartisan Select Committee on the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol pic.twitter.com/TG5gst0Lqj
— Bennie G. Thompson (@BennieGThompson) January 20, 2025
The sweeping pardons are an unprecedented use of the outgoing president’s clemency powers, and will foreclose the possibility of any of the recipients becoming targets of criminal investigations during Trump’s second term.
It’s unclear whether all of the recipients will accept the grants of executive clemency. Under American law, a pardon must be freely accepted by the recipient in order to be effective. And some of the former House members who Biden has now pardoned, including former GOP representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, have said they would not accept a pardon because under the law the acceptance of a pardon is considered an admission of guilt.
Earlier this month, Kinzinger said he did not want to be pardoned during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert because he “didn’t do anything wrong.”
“If Donald Trump wants to come after me… Look, do I want him to come after me? Of course not. But if he decides to, I’ll be twice as much of a pain in his backside because I will, from my cell in jail, continue to remind the American people that this is not the country we live in, this was not the country the Constitution represents, and I will continue to call him out,” he said.
Biden’s last-minute use of his pardon power comes on the heels of another controversial grant of clemency to his son, Hunter Biden, who he absolved of a sweeping list of tax and other crimes committed over a decade-long period.
It’s likely one of the last official acts he will undertake before he leaves the White House for the final time as president and rides to the Capitol alongside Trump, who will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States at noon in the Capitol rotunda on Monday afternoon. Trump has previously hinted that he could seek revenge against his numerous political enemies after returning to the Oval Office.
